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It is simply not true that war is solely a means to an end, nor do people necessarily fight in order to obtain this objective or that. In fact, the opposite is true: people very often take up one objective or another precisely in order that they may fight.

Martin Van Creveld

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Martin Van Creveld
Age: 78
Born: 1946
Born: March 5
Historian
Military Historian
University Teacher
Writer
R'dam
Martin Levi van Creveld
True
Simply
Obtain
Order
Fighting
Objective
Ends
Fact
Precisely
May
War
Objectives
Take
Means
Opposite
Mean
Often
Opposites
People
Facts
Necessarily
Another
Fight
Solely

More quotes by Martin Van Creveld

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I want to put any number of assorted 'ists' - such as relativists, deconstructionists, destructivists, postmodernists, the more maudlin kind of pacifists and feminists - firmly in their place.
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In the future as in the past, both Clausewitz and Sun Tzu will undoubtedly have a lot to offer.
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The problem is that you cannot prove yourself against someone who is much weaker than yourself.
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Never' is too much of a word. Nothing lasts forever.
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If you are strong and fighting the weak, then if you kill your opponent then you are a scoundrel... if you let him kill you, then you are an idiot.
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We possess several hundred atomic warheads and rockets and can launch them at targets in all directions, perhaps even at Rome. Most European capitals are targets of our air force.
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Our armed forces are not the thirtieth strongest in the world, but rather the second or third. We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that this will happen before Israel goes under.
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Except when war is waged in a desert, noncombatants, also known as civilians or the people, constitute the great majority of those affected.
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As history since Hiroshima shows, the best, perhaps the only, way to curb war is to deter it with such overwhelming force as to turn it from a struggle into suicide.
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Assuming China does not become destabilized and continues to grow, it will no doubt develop a military program in proportion to its resources.
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A world without war is not in the cards.
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