Theories and opinions about War - Clausewitz & others.

“War therefore is an act of violence intended to compel our opponent to fulfil our will.''
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"War is neither a scientific game nor an international sport; it is an act of violence, characterized by destruction." 

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" ... war exists in the realm of chance. The most certain idea about war lies in the uncertainty of it."

(...) "War is only a branch of political activity… it is in no sense autonomous."

(...)‘War is nothing more than the continuation of politics by other means… For political aims are the end and war is the means, and the means can never be conceived without the end."

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" When the … required outlay becomes so great that political object is no longer equal in value, the object must be given up, and peace will be the result. In wars where one side cannot disarm the other side entirely, the motives towards peace will rise and fall on each side depending on the probability of future success."

Carl von Clausewitz: ON WAR. Book 1, Chapter 1

 

"(...) There are two motives that lead men to war in the absolute and total sense, instinctive hostility and hostile intention. 

In terms of absolute war, Clausewitz discusses three characteristics that make it unique. First, the utmost use of force is necessary. Second, the aim is to disarm the enemy. Lastly, absolute war calls for the utmost exertion of powers. However, absolute war only exists in the abstract ..."

"(...) three objectives for success (in war). First, the armed forces of the opponent must be destroyed. Second, the country must be occupied. Third, the will of the enemy must be broken."  

"(...) Though Clausewitz admits that war could begin again directly after the peace, he argues that it only serves to prove that war does not carry in itself elements for a final settlement of peace. War, though not always constant, is continual. "
"(...) Throughout Vom Kriege, Carl von Clausewitz, continually refers to a ‘remarkable’ or ‘paradoxical’ trinity which drives real war, composed of 1) primordial violence, enmity, and hatred 2) chance and probability, and 3) the element of war of subordination to rational policy. The trinity serves as a magnet to balance the three forces of war – the people, the military, and the statesmen. Clausewitz argues that the passions that kindle war must be innate in the people, the courage and talent of the commander and army plays into the realm of probability and chance, but the political aims are only the business of the government alone. Though, without the three branches working in harmony, war cannot be successfully waged."

 Jordan Lindell, Nov 26 2009

 ‘What Clausewitz meant is that war… is not an autonomous game produced by fixed external or internal constraints; it is instead a matter of political choice, reflecting all the variety of political purposes that make wars into exterminations.’ 

(Doyle 1997: 23)

“Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die.”
― Herbert Hoover

 

“When the rich wage war it's the poor who die.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, Le diable et le bon dieu

 

“I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another.”
― Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front

 

“A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie. There is no rectitude whatsoever. There is no virtue. As a first rule of thumb, therefore, you can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil.”
― Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried

 

“He who joyfully marches to music rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.”
― Albert Einstein

 

“Religion isn't the cause of wars, it's the excuse.”
― Jasper Fforde, The Eyre Affair

 

“Rules are for children. This is war, and in war the only crime is to lose.”
― Joe Abercrombie, Last Argument of Kings