December 16, 2009

The continuation of war by other means...


FAMOUS PRUSSIAN QUOTE:

“War is...the continuation of politics by other means.”
       Karl von Clausewitz (1780-1831)
       Prussian general and military theorist
       The usual paraphrase of a remark he made in On War (1833) 
       (Sometimes given as “…the continuation of state policy…”)


GERMAN COUNTERQUOTE:

“War is not the continuation of policy. It is the breakdown of policy.” 
       Hans von Seeckt (1866-1936)
       German military officer
       In his book Thoughts of a Soldier (1929)


CHINESE QUOTE:

“All diplomacy is a continuation of war by other means.”
       Chou (or Zhou) En-lai (1898-1976)
       The first Premier of the People's Republic of China
       Quoted in the Saturday Evening Post, March 27, 1954


IRAQ QUOTE:

“Terrorism in Iraq has become the continuation of politics by other means.”
       Journalist Rod Nordland 
       Blog post on New York Times website, Nov. 22, 2009


AFGHANISTAN QUOTE:

“One of Clausewitz’s most famous maxims was that war was ‘merely the continuation of politics by other means.’ Scholars still debate what he meant by that. All we know for sure is what he did not mean, that leaders should play politics with their wars. Washington, D.C., is a very un-Clausewitzian place. Politicians want to treat the war in Afghanistan as just another political debate.’”
       Dr. James Jay Carafano
       Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies
       Op-ed published on Examiner.com, Nov. 30, 2009


ISRAELI QUOTE:

“To paraphrase Karl von Clausewitz, law is used as the continuation of war by other means.”
       Editorial, Jerusalem Post, Dec. 15, 2009


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