Gettysburg

I figured my trip had to include some element of culture and history, so I stopped by Gettyburg, Pennsylvania, where the Confederate army beat the s*** out of the Union people (or was it the other way around? Who won this war anyway?) way way way back in the day in 1863, and where president Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg address some months after the battle. The address was given at the opening of a National Cemetery for war casualties, and now there are rows upon rows of fallen soldiers from more or less every single war or conflict the US has been involved in since Lincoln's days. A lot of money have also been spent on large ornamental marble monuments honoring the soldiers, their families and their will to die for their country. Did any of the generals or commanders in chief ever consider that the best way to honor the nation's soldiers might be to never go to war?