Clauswitz, in his dictum, implies the existence of state, state interests, and rational calculation analyzing war. Yet war antedates the state, diplomacy and strategy by many years. Warfare is almost as old as mankind, and reaches into the most secret places of the human heart. Places where self dissolves rational thinking, where pride reigns, where emotions are paramount, and where instinct is king. Clauswitz does not dare confront the thought that man is a thinking animal in whom the intellect directs the urge to hunt and the ability to kill.

This is not an idea easy for the modern man to confront. Our moral values remain those of the great monotheistic religions, which condemn the killing of other people

Clauswitz's book is a must in all-military academies around the world. As a young man in the Israeli officers' academy I too had to read it. By the time I have finished my service I came to acknowledge both the flaws and brilliance of his words. Yet feeling he had never fully answered the question, what is war? I had to turn to the words of General William Tecumseh Sherman, who had burned Atlanta and put a great swathe of the American South to the torch during the Civil war, words that are almost as famous as those of Clauswitz: "I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine ... WAR IS HELL."

Clauswitz does not acknowledge the idea of pacifism, yet he does distinguish sharply between the lawful and unlawful bearer of arms. His dictum presupposes a high level of military discipline and an awesome degree of obedience. It expect that war will take certain narrowly definable forms - siege, pitched battle, skirmish, raid, reconnaissance, patrol and outpost duties - each of which has its own recognized conventions. It assumes that wars have a beginning and an end.

History & Theory 34 (November 1995): 90-106

But then again, what were Clauswitz and his kin? The real work of a western 'civilized' war until WWII has been butchery. Men standing silent in rows to be slaughtered, often for hours at a time; "at Borodino the infantry corps are reported to have stood under point blank artillery fire for two hours, during which the only movement was the stirring in the lines caused by falling bodies"(Keegan, 9). So while Clauswitz, representing the modern, western world way of thinking, call cultures like the Cossacks barbarians he showed no better characteristics in war. And if you'll give this description of war to a Cossack, you won't hear yourself because of his laughter.

Clauswitz Homepage. 20 Apl. 2000. USMC Command & Staff

As part of the forces opposing Napoleon in his Russia campaign of 1812, Clauswitz saw Moscow burning as the result of the Cossacks acts. The Cossacks were soldiers of the tsar. The story of their origin has been called a myth, yet the essence of the myth is both simple and true. Cossacks - the name derived from the Turkic word for freeman - were fugitives from Poland, Lithuania, and Russia, who preferred to live in freedom in the rich but lawless surface of the great

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