SWEET! I have suceeded in spawining a different topic. And in relation to everyone's comments,
I wasnt expecting that many enthusiastic responses. Thx everyone! Now my spiel on it.
No the Imperium doesn't want peace! The entire society of the Imperium is based on warfare, all the way from the economy (Forgeworlds, anyone?) to the religious/political system that runs the lives of trillions of humans.
For the economy, as has been previously stated and proven many times in human past, wars usually boost economies, by opening new job oppurtunities and making it appealing to work for "the patriotic spirit". Look what WW2 did to the USA after the depression. On top of that, having an ongoing series of "Holy/Patriotic wars" makes the public feel that they need to stand up for their country. This is exactly the tack that made it possible for the Russian forces in WW2 to have the stunning sucessess they had late-war. With the Holy/Patriotic motives, all the jobs done in that nation could somehow be related to the great struggle against the German, the xenos and the heretic.
And for the political structure, it is easier to control a people throughly indoctrinated in hatred against a certain population, race, or in 40k, species. This indoctrination of hatred stems mainly from teachings of fear, and countering fear with loyalty, bravery, duty, and honor. Thus, the Imperial Guard is able to use tactics as it does without any major uprisings, as there would be if the American Army tried to use "Meat-Wall" tactics. This belief in blood-debt to the Emperor is what makes the idea of conscript platoons feasible in the 40k Imperium.
On top of that, even the Social Structure of The imperum is based around a military system, another thing that needs wars to function properly. The lowest level of self sufficent government on most Imperial planets is the planetary govenor, usually a Military commander chosen from one of the noble houses on the planet. Going up from there, we have the sub-sector command level, to which go problems too big for the planet's PDF and too small for Sector command to care about. For any of you who have read Michael Scanlon's book "15 Hours" I imagine that this is what level the campaign at Broucheroc is being authorized at. If the sub-sector's resources cannot handle it (somthing that a sub-sector couldn't handle, for example. would be like Armageddon), it goes to sector command. This is when the full might of the imperial war machine is brought to bear. Therefore, without wars, these different links in the chain of command serve largley useless purposes, as the only real "tax" levied on the planets of the Imperium is a tithe of Guardsmen, something else that would be abolished with the abolishment of war in 40k.
So overall, If war were abolished in 40k, the imperium would crumble, and that wouldnt be cool. Plus, who would want to play peacehammer, as others above have so aptly stated?
PS: HOLY #$&*! That was a LONG reply. Damnit, i wish this were an english class topic!
-Out-
