tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9146340.post113763967003648079..comments2023-09-26T04:38:00.780-05:00Comments on Hank’s Eclectic Meanderings: War Terminationhank_F_Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09851295792702162861noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9146340.post-1140656025910702902006-02-22T18:53:00.000-06:002006-02-22T18:53:00.000-06:00One always grapples with Clausewitz, as many peopl...One always grapples with Clausewitz, as many people have tactfully said he was a much better solider than a writer. And except for the Howard translation the same could be said about his translators into English.<BR/><BR/>I haven’t read Aron’s book but it sounds like the right approach. Clausewitz wrote a philosophy not a cookbook. Look for the broad principles that would apply across time not the technique that would have been perfect for Austerlitz or Waterloo. Looked at from that point of view he makes a good bit of sense. <BR/><BR/>Probably one of the most unrecognized results of his writing comes from the fact that Frederick Engles was an amateur military history person, and picked up from Clausewitz that it is possible for a revolution to be successful. But he turned it around – politics is the continuation of class war by other means. I’m not sure what are friend Andrew would say about that.<BR/><BR/>The interface between the professional politician and the professional solider is where things often break down, not to criticize either (though often both should be), their ways of seeing the world are to different. <BR/><BR/>I am considering using this <A HREF="http://www.policyreview.org/aug03/kagan.html" REL="nofollow"> link</A>for a case study. But rather than throw something at the screen at the stupidity of things I am letting it sit for a while.hank_F_Mhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09851295792702162861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9146340.post-1140477066793723412006-02-20T17:11:00.000-06:002006-02-20T17:11:00.000-06:00Hank, I am just in the process of grappling with t...Hank, I am just in the process of grappling with that very problem , as enunciated in a fascinating , but hard-going, book by Raymond Aron called "Clausewitz - Philosopher of War". (First published in English in 1983 by Routledge & Keegan Paul)<BR/><BR/>Aron is fairly clear but Clausewitz is an enigma. It is no wonder that von Schlieffen and the German General Staff misunderstood him so badly. In fact, his metaphysical style of writing and the apparent contradictions in nis text make me wonder exactly how useful he is as a guide.<BR/><BR/>As to Iraq, I'm afraid that I never had much faith in the neo-con's concept of nation-building' for all sorts of reasons too manifold to go into here. In my view, they should have used old, tried and tested methods and put a bastard in charge whilst making it clear that he was *their* bastard! The British empire ran very smoothly under that system!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com