What rates? The 20th Century was the most brutal period of war in our entire history. More than 40,000,000 people died in world war 2 alone. That's a low estimate... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_and_anthropogenic_...

But you would think it's more important that we have a lower per 1000 rate would you? Personally, every death to me is a shame, and 40,000,000 in WW2 alone, and us having continual war since 2001 creates an outlook of more war in the future. Don't fool yourself into thinking we couldn't beat that record...

You reject relative measures and only measure death in absolute terms? You find a world with a trillion people in which a billion are killed in war to be worse than a world with a billion people in which 90% of them are killed in war? Like I said, impervious to facts.

Modern war is more destructive than previous ones. Even fifty years ago genocide was a laborious task, now it is done with a press of button. There is nothing more deadly than total war.