[Avodah] Why is Milchemes Reshus allowed?

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

I asked:
: What is the rationale behind a milchemes reshus?...
: Why are we not offended by this concept?

R' Micha Berger suggested (and R' Moshe Gluck wrote similarly):
> People die if the economy fails to thrive.

I must be missing something.

I can certainly understand that in some situations, the economy is so bad that people are literally dying in the streets. This is not ancient history, but is happening even today.

Now, one possibility is that the people of another country are the cause of this problem, and another possibility is that they are *not* the cause of this problem. In the first case, where they *are* the cause of the problem, it would be a milchemes mitzva to attack and kill those rodfim. In the second case, where they are *not* the cause of the problem, why do we feel justified in attacking and killing these innocent non-rodfim?

Akiva Miller