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WAR (THOUGHTS ABOUT) N - Z

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see "WAR & PEACE" for related links


The Frenches do not please the Germans,
Who call them names in hymns and sermons;
The Germans do not please the Frenches,
Who wish to shoot at them from trenches.
Now, anybody whom a German hates,
He presently exterminates,
But he who exterminates a French
Is never safe from Gallic revench,
But he who gets even with a German
Is obliterated like a vermin.
And so it goes for ages & aeons
Between these neighboring Europeans.
I hope that such perpetual motion
Stays where it started, across the ocean.
--Ogden Nash (1902—1971)
American writer of humorous poetry.

It is the habit of every aggressor nation to
claim that it is acting on the defensive.
--Jawaharlal Nehru (1889—1964)
Indian statesman.

The naοve notion that we can preserve freedom by
exuding goodwill is not only silly, but dangerous.
The more adherents it wins, the more it tempts
the aggressor.
--Richard Nixon (1913—1994)
American Republican statesman, President [1969—1974].
_The Real War_ [1980]

My factories may make an end of war sooner than your congresses.
The day when two army corps can annihilate each other in one second,
all civilized nations, it is to be hoped, will recoil from war and discharge
their troops.
--Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833—1896)
Swedish chemist, engineer, and industrialist who
invented dynamite and founded the Nobel Prizes.

God is Spanish and fights for our nation these days.
--Olivares, Gaspar de Guzmαn y Pimentel (1587—1645)
Spanish prime minister [1623-1643].

-

War is evil, but it is often the lesser evil.
--George Orwell [Eric Blair] (1903—1950)
English novelist.


The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.
--George Orwell [Eric Blair] (1903—1950)
English novelist.
_Polemic_ [May 1946],
"Second Thoughts on James Burnham"

-

I was in the library in 1915, studying a Latin poet,
and all of a sudden I thought: 'War can't be this
bad.' So I walked out and enlisted.
--Lester B. Pearson (1897—1972)
Canadian prime minister [1963—1968].

But it was pretty news came the other day so fast,
of the Dutch fleets being in so many places, that
Sir W. Batten at table cried, 'By God!' says he, 'I
think the Devil shits Dutchmen.'
--Samuel Pepys (1633—1703)
English diarist and naval administrator.
[19 July 1667],
in M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.}
_History in Quotations_ [2004] p. 387.
Cohan & Major explain:
In the last few months of the Second Anglo-Dutch
War, Dutch naval superiority in general and the
notorious raid on Chatham in particular shocked
the English, who had been led to expect an easy
victory.

If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign
troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my
arms— never — never — never! You cannot conquer America.
--
William Pitt, the Elder, also called (from 1766) 1st Earl of
Chatham (1708-1778) British statesman, twice virtual prime
minister [1756-1761, 1766-1768].
Speech [18 November 1777].

-

Only the dead have seen the end of war
--Plato (427?—347 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.


When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or
treaty, and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always
stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require
a leader.
--Plato (427?—347 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.
_The Republic_ bk. VIII

-

I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote
for war. I vote No.
--Jeannette Rankin (1880—1973)
Rankin was the first woman to serve in the U.S.
Congress.... she voted against U.S. entry into
both World War I and World War II, becoming the
only member of Congress to do so.

History teaches that wars begin when governments
believe the price of aggression is cheap.
--Ronald Reagan (1911—2004)
American President [1981—1989] and former Hollywood actor.

-

I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen
blood running from the wounded. I have seen men coughing out
their gassed lungs. I have seen the dead in the mud. I have
seen cities destroyed. I have seen 200 limping, exhausted, men
come out of line — the survivors of a regiment of 1,000 that
went forward 48 hours before. I have seen children starving.
I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war.
--Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882—1945)
American Democratic statesman and President [1933—1945].
Speech at Chautauqua, NY [14 August 1936].


The work, my friend, is peace. More than an end
of this war — an end to the beginnings of all wars.
--Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882—1945)
American Democratic statesman and President [1933—1945].
(Undelivered address for Jefferson Day, [13 April 1945]
the day after Roosevelt died - ODTQ.)

-

-

A just war is in the long run far better for a nation's soul
than the most prosperous peace obtained by acquiescence
in wrong or injustice. Moreover, though it is criminal for a
nation not to prepare for war, so that it may escape the
dreadful consequences of being defeated in war, yet it
must always be remembered that even to be defeated
in war may be far better than not to have fought at all.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].
In his annual message to Congress [4 January 1906].


Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to
avoid hitting; but never hit softly.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].

-

Whoever has his foe at his mercy, and does
not kill him, is his own enemy.
--Sa'di [Muslih-uddin] (c. 1184—1291?)
Iranian poet.
_Gulistan_ [1258]

If America cannot win a war in a week,
it begins negotiating with itself.
--William Safire (1929— )
Journalist, speechwriter, novelist, lexicographer,
and winner of the 1978 Pulitzer for commentary.
_The New York Times_ [10 August 1990]

-

-

"Grass" by Carl Sandburg
(1878—1967)
American poet.

Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work —
I am the grass; I cover all.

And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?
Where are we now?

I am the grass.
Let me work.


Little girl: Sometime they'll give
a war and nobody will come.
--Carl Sandburg (1878—1967)
American poet.
"The People, Yes" [1936]

-

To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous
quality in the captain and a positive crime in a statesman.
--George Santayana (1863—1952)
Spanish-born philosopher and critic.

I don't consider myself dovish. And I certainly don't
consider myself hawkish. Maybe I would describe myself
as owlish — that is, wise enough to understand that you
want to do everything possible to avoid war; that once
you're committed to war, then be ferocious enough to
do whatever is necessary to get it over as quickly as
possible in victory.
--H. Norman Schwarzkopf, III (1934- )
American general who commanded the U.S. forces in the Gulf War of 1991.
In "New York Times" [28 January 1991].

The enemy say that Americans are good at a long shot,
but cannot stand the cold iron. I call upon you instantly
to give a lie to the slander. Charge!
--General Winfield Scott (1786—1866)
American army officer who served as a general in three wars
and was the unsuccessful Whig candidate for president in 1852.
Address to the 11th Infantry Regiment before the
U.S. victory over British forces at Chippawa, Canada [5 July 1814] {GBAQ.}

We are mad not only individually, but nationally. We
check manslaughter and isolated murders; but what
of war and the much-vaunted crime of slaughtering
whole peoples?. . . Deeds that would be punished
by loss of life when committed in secret are praised
by us because uniformed generals have carried them
out.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C.— 65 A.D.)
Roman philosopher and poet.
"On the Usefulness of Basic Principles"
_Moral Letters to Lucilius_ tr. Richard M. Gummere [1918]

-

Domestic fury and fierce civil strife
Shall cumber all the parts of Italy;
Blood and destruction shall be so in use
And dreadful objects so familiar
That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quarter'd with the hands of war;
All pity choked with custom of fell deeds:
And Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice
Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war;
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_Julius Caesar_ [1599]

-

The legitimate object of war is a more perfect peace.
--William Tecumseh Sherman (1820—1891)
American Union general.
Speech in St. Louis [20 July 1865].


There is many a boy here today who looks on
war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell.
--William Tecumseh Sherman (1820—1891)
American Union general.
Speech in Columbus, Ohio [11 August 1880].


I am tired and sick of War. It's glory is all moonshine. It is only
those who have never fired a shot nor heard the shreaks and
groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance,
more desolation. War is Hell!
--William Tecumseh Sherman (1820—1891)
American Union general.
Speech at the Michigan Military Academy [19 June 1879].

-

For God's sake, do not drag me into another war! ..... I am sorry for
the Spaniards — I am sorry for the Greeks — I deplore the fate of the
Jews; the people of the Sandwich Islands are groaning under the
most detestable tyranny; Baghdad is oppressed — I do not like the
present state of the Delta — Tibet is not comfortable. Am I to fight
for all these people? Am I to be champion of the Decalogue and to
be eternally raising fleets and armies to make all men good and
happy? We have just done saving Europe, and I am afraid the
consequence will be that we shall cut each other's throats. No
war, dear Lady Grey! no eloquence; but apathy, selfishness,
common sense, arithmetic!
--Sydney Smith (1771—1845)
English clergyman and essayist,
in 1802 cofounded "The Edinburgh Review."
Letter to Lady Grey.

Some were blinded. When others saw the burns
spread upon their arms and legs and felt the
increasing pain ... they ... broke and fled. From
their easy perches in high heaven the Italians could
see ... with a feeling of rich treasure trove, an
Ethiopian force jerked suddenly backward, horrified
and scattered. Bombing had never shown such an
aesthetic result. Total dispersion.
--G.L. Steer _Caesar in Abyssinia_ [1937] p.233.,
in M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.}
_History in Quotations_ [2004] p. 789.
Cohan & Major explain:
From an eyewitness account of Italy's first indiscriminate
use of mustard gas, sprayed from aircraft on the lightly
clothed Ethiopian soldiers and civilians, 22 Dec. 1935.
Italy's war on Ethiopia destroyed one of the only two
independent states south of the Sahara; the other was
Liberia.

Waste of Blood, and waste of Tears,
Waste of youth's most precious years,
Waste of ways the saints have trod,
Waste of Glory, waste of God,
War!
--Geoffrey Anketell Studdert-Kennedy
(1883—1929) British poet.

-

The four great motives which move men to social activity
are hunger, love, vanity, and fear of superior powers. If
we search out the causes which have moved men to war
we find them under each of these motives or interests.
--William Graham Sumner (1840—1910)
American sociologist and economist.
"War" in _War and Other Essays_ [1911]


If you want a war, nourish a doctrine. Doctrines
are the most fearful tyrants to which men ever
are subject, because doctrines get inside of a
man's own reason and betray him against
himself. Civilized men have done their fiercest
fighting for doctrines.
--William Graham Sumner (1840—1910)
American sociologist and economist.
"War" in _War and Other Essays_ [1911]

-

In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy's
country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So,
too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it, to capture
a regiment, a detachment or a company entire than to destroy them.

Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence;
supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without
fighting.

--Sun Tzu (fl. early 4th cent.)
Reputed author of of the Chinese classic
Ping-fa (The Art of War), the earliest known
treatise on war and military science {EB}.
ch. III "Attack By Stratagem"

-

Our greatest advantage in coping with tribes
so powerful is that they do not act in concert.
Seldom is it that two or three states meet
together to ward off a common danger. Thus,
while they fight singly, all are conquered.
--Tacitus [or Publius Cornelius Tacitus or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus]
(c.55—c.117), Roman orator, lawyer, senator, and historian.
_The Life of Cneaus Julius Agricola_

The battlefield as a place of settlement of disputes
is gradually yielding to arbitral courts of justice.
--William Howard Taft (1857—1930)
27th President of the United States [1909—1913]
and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court [1921—1930].
In _The Dawn of World Peace_ [1911].

-

The Charge of The Light Brigade
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson(1809—1892)
English poet.

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
"Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Someone had blunder'd:
Their's not to make reply,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air,
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel'd from the sabre stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honour the charge they made,
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred.

-

Be convinced that to be happy means to be free and
that to be free means to be brave. Therefore do not
take lightly the perils of war.
--Thucydides (c.460—c.400 B.C.)
Greek historian of Athens.

O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody
shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling
fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help
us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks
of their wounded, writhing in pain. . . .For our sakes
who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their
lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy
their steps, water their way with tears, stain the
white snow with the blood of their wounded feet!
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
"The War Prayer" [written 1905, published 1923]

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.
--Vegetius [Flavius Vegetius Renatus] (fl. c. 375)
Roman military expert.
_De Rei Militari_, III, prologue

The submarine may be the cause of bringing
conflict to a halt altogether, for fleets will become
useless, and as other war matιriel continues to
improve, war will become impossible.
--Jules Verne (1828—1905)
French author.
_The Future of the Submarine_ [1904]

Wars are not acts of God. They are caused by man,
by man-made institutions, by the way in which man
has organized his society. What man has made, man
can change.
--Frederick Moore Vinson (1890—1953),
13th Chief Justice of the United States (1946—1953).

As a peace machine, [the airplane's] value to the world
will be beyond computation. Would a declaration of war
between Russia and Japan be made, if within an hour
thereafter, a swiftly gliding airplane might take its flight
from St Petersburg and drop half a ton of dynamite above
the [Japanese] war offices? Could any nation afford to
war upon any other with such hazards in view?
--John Brisben Walker (1847—1931)
American editor and publisher of _Cosmopolitan_ [1889—1905].
In _Cosmopolitan_ [March 1904]

-

That no man should scruple, or hesitate to use arms in defense
of so valuable a blessing [as freedom], on which all the good
and evil of life depends, is clearly my opinion; yet arms . . .
should be the last resource.
--George Washington (1732—1799)
American general and commander-in-chief of the
colonial armies in the American Revolution [1775—1783]
and first president of the United States [1789—1797].
Letter to George Mason [5 April 1769].


If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to
repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the
most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity,
it must be known, that we are at all times ready
for War.
--George Washington (1732—1799)
American general and commander-in-chief of the
colonial armies in the American Revolution [1775—1783]
and first president of the United States [1789—1797].
Fifth Annual Address to Congress.

-

Next to a battle lost, the greatest
misery is a battle gained.
--Duke of Wellington (1769—1852)
British soldier and statesman.
In _Diary of Frances, Lady Shelley 1787-1817_ (ed. R. Edgcumbe).


I don't know what effect these men will have
upon the enemy, but, by God, they frighten
me!
--Duke of Wellington (1769—1852)
British soldier and statesman.
(On the men under his command [1809])
in M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.}
_History in Quotations_ [2004] p. 534.

-

Before a war military science seems a real science,
like astronomy; but after a war it seems more like
astrology.
--Dame Rebecca West [Cecily Isabel Fairfiield]
(1892—1983)
British-Irish journalist, novelist, and critic.

Television is an instrument which can paralyze this country.
--William Westmoreland (1914—2005)
American soldier.
Quoted in _Time_ [5 April 1982].

-

I can predict with absolute certainty that within
another generation there will be another world war
if the nations of the world do not concert the
method by which to prevent it.
--Woodrow Wilson (1856—1924)
American Democratic statesman and President [1913—1921].
{In 1919.}


But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for
the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts — for
democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have
a voice in their own Governments, for the rights and liberties of
small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert
of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and
make the world itself at last free.
--Woodrow Wilson (1856—1924)
American Democratic statesman and President [1913—1921].
Address to Congress [2 April 1917].


President Woodrow Wilson of USA, trying to cut Australian PM Billy
Hughes down to size by alluding to Australia's minor role at the
Versailles Peace conference (Jan 1919), asked him who he represented.

President Woodrow Wilson: Mr Hughes, I speak for very many
millions of people. For whom do you speak?

Australian PM Billy Hughes : Mr President, I speak for 60,000 dead.

[Although Australia's population numbered less than a twentieth of
that of the USA, its tally of war dead was more than half the USA's.]

-

THE WAR OF 1812

-

Remember the Maine!
--Slogan coined after the sinking of the
U.S. battleship _Maine_ in the harbor of
Havana, Cuba [15 February 1898].

When war is declared, Truth is the first casualty.
--anon., epigraph to Arthur Ponsonby's _Falsehood in Wartime_ [1928];
attributed also to Hiram Johnson, speaking in the U.S. Senate [1918],
but not recorded in his speech; possibly based on a passage by Samuel
Johnson in "The Idler" [11 November 1758] {ODTQ}.

-

The high contracting parties solemnly declare
in the names of their respective peoples that
they condemn recourse to war for the solution
of international controversies, and renounce it
as an instrument of national policy in their
relations with one another.
--Kellogg-Briand Pact, Article 1, signed
in Paris [27 August 1928].
The Pact had 64 signatures: Japan, Germany,
Italy, and the USSR among them.

-

Old soldiers never die;
They only fade away!
--British Army song [c.1915]

-

We sure liberated the hell out of this place.
--American soldier in the ruins of a French
village [1944]; quoted by Max Miller,
_The Far Shore_ [1945].

-

Disease, not battle, used to be the No. 1 killer during war.
In the Spanish-American war, for every man who died in
combat, six died from disease. During the American Civil
War, 185,000 troops died in combat or of battle-related
wounds, 373,000 died of disease.

-

War is ugly, and it's the last thing you want to have
to do. But sometimes it is necessary, and when it is,
you want to be the best at it. There's absolutely nothing
wrong with having pride in your soldiers' ability to kill
people and break things, if they are doing so for a just
cause.

Aircrews cheerfully write notes on their bombs to the people
they are about to obliterate. Submariners make jokes like,
"There are only two kinds of naval vessels — submarines,
and targets". Yes, they are joking about an activity which
involves killing thousands of people.

This is part of the esprit de corps of a good military —
if soldiers spent all their time navel-gazing over the
philosophical ramifications of each pull of the trigger,
they'd be useless. Or French. Or both.

--Happy Fun Pundit [24 March 2002]


---

TOPICAL

The Power of the Pentagon
By Max Boot
_The Wall Street Journal_
May 17, 2006

Any book with a subtitle that refers to "The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power" bears a heavy burden of proof — to show that the exercise of American power has indeed been a disaster. This would seem a difficult case to make, given that over the past six decades the U.S. has presided over an unprecedented expansion of free governments and free markets across the world, kept the peace in Europe and East Asia after centuries of disastrous conflicts, and defeated such monstrous regimes as Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, Soviet Russia and Baathist Iraq. The true disaster would have been if, as in 1914 and 1939, America had failed to exercise its power.

James Carroll does not bother to confront any of these obvious points in his lengthy diatribe against the "garrison state." An erstwhile Catholic priest turned moralistic writer (of novels, nonfiction books and a Boston Globe column), he simply assumes as his first principle that American power is indefensible and then unspools a long narrative of America's conduct since the 1940s to illustrate the point. His case should be familiar to anyone who has read anything by such far-left luminaries as Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Jonathan Schell, or Seymour Hersh. It goes like this:

The bombing of German and Japanese cities, culminating with Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was a war crime akin to the Holocaust. Thus "America's mid-twentieth century initiation into world power was as much in the state of mortal sin as its birth in slavery had been." America continued sinning by building more atomic bombs and targeting them on the Soviet Union. Good ole Joe Stalin simply wanted to live and let live — if only we had let him. "By portraying Stalin and his system as warmongering monsters," Mr. Carroll writes, early hard-liners like George Kennan and James Forrestal "helped push the Kremlin in that direction."

Mr. Carroll spends an inordinate amount of space on Forrestal's tortured psyche — the first secretary of defense committed suicide in 1949 — to suggest that anyone else who hated and feared communism must have been equally deranged. Richard Nixon, among many others, is portrayed as a warmongering nut job. Ronald Reagan, by contrast, was a warmongering simpleton whose role in the fall of the Berlin Wall was minimal. How original. Mr. Carroll bemoans "Reagan's childlike inability ever to have mastered the broken logic of nuclear deterrence" — after having spent many pages claiming that deterrence was illogical and immoral.

A few themes emerge from this impassioned narrative. One is that America can do no right. Mr. Carroll has the gall to castigate President Gerald Ford for imposing "a punitive embargo" on Vietnam "in violation of America's obligations under the Paris Accords" — without ever mentioning that the sanctions were a wan response to Hanoi's invasion of the south, a much bigger violation of the accords.

Another theme is that war, at least as waged by the U.S., is never justified. Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait should have been "handled as a diplomatic crisis." The 9/11 attacks should have been addressed with "an internationally coordinated law enforcement effort."

A third theme is that the true heroes of the Cold War were not the soldiers, spies and statesmen who fought communist expansionism but antiwar activists — like, well, Mr. Carroll — who tried to impede their efforts. In a book full of too many offensive statements to count perhaps the most infuriating is Mr. Carroll's comparison of the nuclear-freeze movement in the West with the Solidarity movement in Poland. He actually labels nuclear-freeze organizer Randall Forsberg "an American Walesa" — as if it were just as courageous to protest in Central Park as it was behind the Iron Curtain.

Such tortured logic pervades "House of War." Mr. Carroll wants to argue that in the post-1945 era "the Pentagon usurped controls over the levers of the American economy and culture, over science, academia, and politics." This is belied by two inconvenient realities. First, there is no "Pentagon viewpoint" -- different members of different military branches often have conflicting views, as Mr. Carroll notes on many occasions. Second, whatever the views inside the Pentagon, the major decisions about war have usually been made elsewhere. For instance, in the 1990s, senior generals opposed humanitarian interventions in places like Bosnia and Kosovo, but the Clinton administration acted anyway. Mr. Carroll blithely waves away this problem by proclaiming that "the arrival of 'human rights' as the latest justification for war represented another triumph for the Pentagon." Huh?

The most interesting parts of this dreary (if smoothly written) tirade concern the author's difficult relationship with his late father, an Air Force general who was the first director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in the 1960s. Unfortunately, Mr. Carroll already told that story in a previous tome, "An American Requiem" (1996). Here he incessantly cites his parentage and his childhood visits to the Pentagon to lend unwarranted authority to antimilitary and anti-American pronouncements of the sort that undoubtedly drove his dad batty. "I have the eyes of a soldier's son, through which, unfortunately, I see everything," he writes with mock humility. (Note that "unfortunately" — oh, what a curse omniscience is.) In reality he sees nothing beyond his own ideological blinders.

Mr. Boot is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of the forthcoming "War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History, 1500 to Today" (Gotham Books).

-

"The Horrors of War"

At the dawning of the year 2004, there were fifteen major wars in
progress, plus twenty more "lesser" conflicts. According to Global
Security, there are now conflicts raging in the following places:

Afghanistan (Taliban and Al Qaida)
Algeria (insurgency by Muslim fundamentalists)
Angola (secessionist conflict in Angola's Cabinda enclave)
Burma (insurgency by ethnic minority groups)
Burundi (civil war between ethnic groups)
China (dispute with other countries over ownership of Spratly Islands)
Colombia (insurgency by various guerrilla groups)
Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo War involving nine African
nations)
Georgia (conflict with Russia, ethnic group conflict)
India (longstanding conflicts in Assam and Kashmir; Naxalite uprising)
Indonesia (conflicts in Aceh , Kalimantan, Maluku and Papua)
Iraq (occupation by U.S. forces)
Israel (Intifada)
Ivory Coast (civil war)
Liberia (ritual killings and cannibalism)
Moldova (Transdniester independence movement)
Namibia (Caprivi Strip liberation movement)
Nepal (Maoist insurgency)
Nigeria (religious and ethnic conflicts)
Peru (Shining Path terrorist movement)
Philippines (Moro Islamic Liberation Front uprising)
Russia (Chechen uprising)
Somalia (civil war)
Spain (Basque uprising)
Sri Lanka (Tamil uprising)
Sudan (civil war)
Thailand (Islamic insurgency)
Turkey (Kurdish separatist movement)
Uganda (civil unrest)
--end list--

According to the Global Security website:

"The United Nations defines "major wars" as military conflicts
inflicting 1,000 battlefield deaths per year. In 1965, there were
10 major wars under way. The millennium ended with much of
the world consumed in armed conflict or cultivating an uncertain
peace. At the end of 2003, there were 15 Major Wars under
way, with at least 20 "lesser" conflicts ongoing."

-----

armistice (noun) ['ah(r)-mκ-stis]
A limited cease-fire or the document containing the terms of a limited
cease-fire; a temporary truce put in place until a permanent agreement
can be reached between two hostile parties.

bellicose [BEL-ih-kohs], adjective:
Inclined to or favoring war or strife; warlike; pugnacious.

extirpate (verb)
To destroy totally; exterminate.
Synonyms: eradicate, exterminate, uproot

internecine (adj.) [in-tκr-'ne-seen]
Aimed at total destruction; mutually destructive;
pertaining to a struggle within an entity, such as
a nation or organization.


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