Eisenhower made an interesting statement on that. Paraphrasing, and hopefully not butchering it too badly:
Quote
Every time you see one of our bombers fly overhead, you ought to shed a tear. Every bomber that is built is a school that was not built, and the future of this country is in schools, not in bombers. In the final sense, every [warship? military rifle?] that is made represents a theft from those who are hungry and not fed.
He seemed to understand very well that humanity would be much better off if we could find a way to not divert scarce resources to implements of war.
Unfortunately, the sad state of our world forces this misallocation of resources.
