dagblog - Comments for "Instead of arguing about Goldstone"

Obviously #3 doesn't follow

Flavius — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 14:16:59 +0000

In reply to "Clausewitz' dictum that

Obviously #3 doesn't follow from #1, does it?

If there's a conflict between Clausewitz and a UN resolution my money's on Clausewitz.

Nor does #2

That's why it's ironic.

I agree with your final paragraph

"Clausewitz' dictum that

Desider — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:33:13 +0000

In reply to Lidice was one of the Czech

"Clausewitz' dictum that every policy must be strictly designed to win the war"

"Ironically rather than advancing the interests of the Central Powers in accordance with Clausewitz , the massacre eroded the initially pro german sympathies of the US."

"my guess is that when push comes to shove Clausewitz would feel right at home in any military today."

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Obviously #3 doesn't follow from #1, does it? Nor does #2. "War is nothing but the continuation of politics by other means." So properly, you would just finish off the business through politics if it achieved your aims efficiently.

Getting distracted by molesting citizens for petty non-military purposes would probably not interest Clausewitz. Nor would a war that achieved military objectives but none of the political ones.

Lidice was one of the Czech

Flavius — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:20:00 +0000

In reply to If we're going back to WWII,

Lidice was one of the Czech towns..

Then and in WW1 German Army doctrine was based on Clausewitz' dictum that every policy must be strictly designed to win the war. With respect to civilians if they did not impede the military they could be ignored. But if they did they made themselves eligible to be treated in whatever way advanced the Army's objectives..

In "The Guns of August", Barbara Tuchman describes a German retaliation in August 1914 after some opposition. The inhabitants of an entire Belgian town - 600 people, mostly women , children and the aged - were ordered to stand in 2 lines on either side of a plaza where they waited for hours. At sunset German troops filed between them, stood back to back facing outward and at a signal shot them. A poster was printed and distributed throughout Belgium describing the incident. Pour encourager les autres.

Ironically rather than advancing the interests of the Central Powers in accordance with Clausewitz, the massacre eroded the initially pro-German sympathies of the US.

UN resolutions to the contrary my guess is that when push comes to shove Clausewitz would feel right at home in any military today.

Sorry about that.

Flavius — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:58:25 +0000

In reply to Look, after the last time

Sorry about that.

Look, after the last time

Verified Atheist — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:51:03 +0000

In reply to Instead of arguing about Goldstone

Look, after the last time when you sent me to lemonparty (or was that someone else?), I most certainly ain't checking out bitterlemons. Fool me once shame on you, fool me a second time… the thing is you shouldn't have fooled me.

If we're going back to WWII,

Desider — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 03:30:21 +0000

In reply to Instead of arguing about Goldstone

If we're going back to WWII, we also see the Germans' expectation of total civilian capitulation, or mass reprisals.

Around 1942, a few paratrooped-in Czechs killed Heydrich, in charge of the Czechoslovak occupation and Chairman of the Wannsee Conference, and the Germans simply picked 2 villages, killed everyone in them, and razed them to the ground.

I guess the Czechs were wrong to resist, should have accepted the German Weltschau. We all share in guilt. When occupied, should just do as we're told until the Americans come rescue us.