William Graham Sumner described how the Civil War,

which he lived through, had squandered capital and labor: "The mills, forges, and factories were active in working for the government, while the men who ate the grain and wore the clothing were active in destroying, and not in creating capital. This, to be sure, was war. It is what war means, but it cannot bring prosperity."

The preceding is quoted from an article at Mises.org, Ten Recurring Economic Fallacies, 1774-2004 By H.A. Scott Trask [Posted July 26, 2004]

This is a great article. I consider my self a student of Austrian Economics. Trask is farther along in his studies. Consult his article.

Of course, as soon as I posted this, I realized I meant to say a little more. People are demanding more sacrifice from the people who support the war. Mostly democrats, they love it when people sacrifice. They're always bragging about how they sacrifice. I just caught a couple minutes of Al Sharpton bragging about his sacrifices.

War is destruction. It isn't construction. Yes, the people supplying the soldiers get rich, but everybody else sacrifices. There's only one good reason to fight a war and that is to defend the lives and freedom of a people. Freedom (and its basis life, of course) benefits economies. Returning to where you were before a war doesn't really count as a boom time, though it may train in - by rewarding non-destructive behavior - the good productive hapits that will lead to the next real boom.