Genocide is a tactic of the temporarily powerful

Instinctively, most of us think of such acts as the products of hatred and paranoia. Rwanda had both, to be sure. But this emphasis on psychological forces once again underestimates the cold strategic calculus behind mass killings and cleansings. Genocide is a tactic of the temporarily powerful. The logic should sound familiar by now: today’s majority can share a slice of the pie with the minority group for eternity, or they can pay a cost now and avoid having to bargain and share in the future. When the minority is expected to remain small and weak, it doesn’t make sense for the majority to pay the price of eliminating them. But if the minority is growing quickly in number, military might, or wealth, then the majority is faced with a diabolical decision akin to that of a Germany facing a rising Russia.

C. Blattman, Why we fight (2022), loc. 2230

For every gang war that ever was in Medellín, a thousand others have been averted through negotiation and trade

For every gang war that ever was in Medellín, a thousand others have been averted through negotiation and trade. Even though the valley is filled to its green peaks with hotheaded armed gang members, the combos of Medellín seldom go to war. They despise one another. They maneuver for drug plazas and prison hallways. They occasionally skirmish. But the region’s homicide rate is lower than that of many big American cities

C. Blattman, Why we fight (2022), loc. 670

Yet again, this was a case of large scale hybrid warfare: and Napoleon was not particularly good at it

Yet – as the degree to which the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars were fought out on a transcontinental scale makes clear – viewed in their entirety, these conflicts did not in fact represent a wholly new form of warfare. Rather they marked a continuation, on a notably bigger scale, of that combined fighting on land and sea which had been escalating in expense since the early 1700s. Yet again, this was a case of large scale hybrid warfare: and Napoleon was not particularly good at it. 

L. Colley, The gun, the ship and the pen (2021), 164

The bit Napoleon is bad at, is maritime warfare of course.

But back then we hid, we didn’t even wear our medals. Men wore them, but not women

When I put on a dress for the first time, I flooded myself with tears. I didn’t recognize myself in the mirror. We had spent four years in trousers. There was no one I could tell that I had been wounded, that I had a concussion. Try telling it, and who will give you a job then, who will marry you? We were silent as fish. We never acknowledged to anybody that we had been at the front. We just kept in touch among ourselves, wrote letters. It was later that they began to honor us, thirty years later … to invite us to meetings … But back then we hid, we didn’t even wear our medals. Men wore them, but not women. Men were victors, heroes, wooers, the war was theirs, but we were looked at with quite different eyes. Quite different … I’ll tell you, they robbed us of the victory.

S. Alexievich, tr. R. Pevear and L. Volkhonsky, The unwomanly face of war (1985), Kindle loc 2,123

At the age of five I understood that it was bad for us that mama was young and beautiful. It was dangerous.

I knew my mama was young and beautiful. Other children's mamas were older, but at the age of five I understood that it was bad for us that mama was young and beautiful. It was dangerous. I figured it out at the age of five ... I even understood that it was good that I was little. How could a child understand that? Nobody explained anything to me ...

S. Alexievich, tr. R. Pevear and L. Volkhonsky, Last Witnesses [Liuda Andreeva] (1985), 182

Good, we thought later, it's lucky they were so skinny, we didn't have to eat them

We had a horse, Maika ... she was old and very gentle, and we used her to carry water. The next day this Maika was killed. We were given water with a small piece of Maika in it ... But they concealed it from us for a long time. We wouldn't have been able to eat her ... Not for anything! She was the only horse in our orphanage. We also had two hungry cats. Skeletons! Good, we thought later, it's lucky they were so skinny, we didn't have to eat them. There was nothing there to eat.

S. Alexievich, tr. R. Pevear and L. Volkhonsky, Last Witnesses [Zina Kosiak] (1985), 15

Taken to keep the white man's shambas alive while theirs fell into neglect and waste!

Some were taken to work on European farms while the white man went to war. Imagine that: taken to keep the white man's shambas alive while theirs fell into neglect and waste! For a woman alone can never do all the work on the farm. How could she grow sugar cane, yams, sweet potatoes which used to be man's domain.

N. wa Thiong'o, Petals of blood (1977), 254

An American cheese manufacturer convinces the government to raise tariffs on imported cheese and declare war on Switzerland

Back in 1927, the Gershwins had collaborated with George S. Kaufman on Strike up the band (1927), in which an American cheese manufacturer convinces the government to raise tariffs on imported cheese and declare war on Switzerland. He even offers to pay for the war if it is named after him. 

J. Kenrick, Musical theatre: a history (2008), 220

For they are necessary to have above all else, especially money

First of all, he [the wise prince] will consider how much strength he has or can obtain, how many men are available and how much money. For unless he is well supplied with those two basic elements, it is folly to wage war, for they are necessary to have above all else, especially money.

Christine de Pizan, cited in J. Barker, Agincourt (2005), 103

Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor

One girl told him bluntly: “My mother says that violence never settles anything.” “So?” Mr. Dubois looked at her bleakly. “I’m sure the city fathers of Carthage would be glad to know that. Why doesn’t your mother tell them so? Or why don’t you?” They had tangled before—since you couldn’t flunk the course, it wasn’t necessary to keep Mr. Dubois buttered up. She said shrilly, “You’re making fun of me! Everybody knows that Carthage was destroyed!” “You seemed to be unaware of it,” he said grimly. “Since you do know it, wouldn’t you say that violence had settled their destinies rather thoroughly?

....

Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms.”

R. Heinlein, Starship troopers (1959), 26-27

As much as one-tenth of Britain’s national revenue derived from the trade at Canton

The [East India] Company’s income from the China trade was completely swamping its revenues from India: in the first decade of the 1800s, the imports from Canton provided two-thirds of the entire sales income of the East India Company in London. By the latter part of that decade the China portion of its trade was bringing in record profits while the India trade operated in some years at a net loss. The effect was, first, to create a huge increase in the government’s tax revenue from the China trade—to the point that by some estimates as much as one-tenth of Britain’s national revenue derived from the trade at Canton. By corollary, the growing reliance of the British government on its tax revenues from the Company’s tea also meant that the stability of affairs in Canton became a matter of serious national interest. Any interruption to the China trade could interfere with Britain’s ability to finance its war. 

S. R. Platt, Imperial Twilight (2018), 88-89

Measured in these terms it is clear that during the Wars of the Roses English townsmen were more relaxed than they had been in earlier centuries

From the thirteenth century onwards most towns financed their building operations by being granted the right to levy a toll on goods coming into the town for sale. This toll was known as murage. In the fifteenth century several new sources of financial aid were found, the most popular being the receipt of a grant from customs duties to meet the cost of a sea-port’s fortification. As a crude barometer of the effect of the Wars of the Roses on the outlook of municipal authorities we can make a count at ten-year intervals of the number of towns receiving grants of murage or other forms of financial aid for the same purpose. In 1460 there were nine; 1470, again nine; in 1480 only six, and by 1490 it was down to four. One hundred years earlier the same count shows seven in 1360, seventeen in 1370, fifteen in 1380 and fifteen in 1390. Two hundred years earlier it had been fourteen in 1260, seventeen in 1270, and ten in 1280 and 1290. The totals for these decades, though somewhat artificial, are very revealing: fifty-one in the thirteenth century, fifty-four in the fourteenth and only twenty-eight in the fifteenth. Measured in these terms it is clear that during the Wars of the Roses English townsmen were more relaxed than they had been in earlier centuries, though possibly fractionally more worried than they had been in the previous four decades (1420-50) when the total is twenty-six.

J. Gillingham, The wars of the Roses (1981), 12

It is a custom in England that the victors in battle kill nobody

In the Wars of the Roses casualties were limited precisely because they were civil wars. On both sides the commanders were anxious to win popular support, not lose it by indulging in bloody massacres. Thus one contemporary observer of the wars, the shrewd French politician Philippe de Commynes noted that ‘it is a custom in England that the victors in battle kill nobody, especially none of the ordinary soldiers, because everyone wants to please them.

J. Gillingham, The wars of the Roses (1981), 12

Knights could wage war with relative impunity

Burdensome though mail, helm and shield may have been, they rendered William and his peers virtually invulnerable. Most sword and arrow strikes could not penetrate through these layers of defence, though lethal blows to the face and eyes were possible, and broken bones (especially from crushing lance attacks) were more common. Only crossbow bolts had the puncturing force to pierce mail and the padding below to reach flesh, and this helps to explain why the papacy sought to ban their use against Christians from 1139 onwards. In the majority of settings, however knights could wage war with relative impunity, and for fully equipped members of this warrior class death in battle was a relatively rare, even shocking, occurrence, 

T. Asbridge, The greatest knight: the remarkable life of William Marshal, the power behind five English thrones (2015), 51

More royal courtiers died from drowning than through fighting for the crown

The relatively rudimentary nature of medieval ship and sail design also meant that seafarers routinely found themselves at the mercy of the elements, praying for calm seas and favourable winds. Shipwrecks were alarmingly common - indeed, it has been estimated that, in the mid-twelfth century, more royal courtiers died from drowning than through fighting for the crown - so few made this journey without a degree of trepidation.

T. Asbridge, The greatest knight: the remarkable life of William Marshal, the power behind five English thrones (2015), 35

Was there really no one in the White House or No. 10 Downing Street who remembered Kipling?

However, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are the the grossest examples of what presentism mean in practice. No one with any knowledge of the murky manoeuvres that carved what is now Iraq out of the defeated Ottoman Empire after the First World War could possibly have thought it a good idea to try, by force of arms, to turn that artificial, riven state into a beacon of democracy for the Middle East. No one who had studied the defeats inflicted on British forces in Afghanistan in the nineteenth century would willingly have dispatched troops, with no knowledge of the local languages and culture, to that harsh terrain with its warrior ethos. Was there really no one in the White House or No. 10 Downing Street who remembered Kipling?

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
and the women come out to cut up what remains,
jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
and go to your gawd like a soldier.

D. Marquand, Mammon's Kingdom (2014), 66

Personally, I find it comforting that some people also base their opposition to Iraq and Afhganistan on  practical grounds rather than the absurdity of UN sanctioned international law.

Force cannot be eliminated

Governments may think and say what they like, but force cannot be eliminated, and it is the only real and unanswerable power. We are told the pen is mightier than the sword, but I know which of these two weapons I would choose

A.C. de Wiart, Happy Odyssey (1950), 271

War has been much misrepresented, believe me. It's had a disgracefully good press.

'Are we going to win the war?' asks Claudia.

'Yes. I assume so. Not because of the lord's intervention or because justice will prevail but because in the last resort we have greater resources. Wars have little to do with justice.Or valour or sacrifice or the other things traditionally associated with them. That's one thing I hadn't quite realised. War has been much misrepresented, believe me. It's had a disgracefully good press. I hope you and your friends are doing something to put that right.' 

P. Lively, Moon Tiger (1987), 102-3

More like a war fought at sea than on land

He had been up at the front and he'd be going back there next week. Or wherever the front by then was - that indeterminate confusion of minefields and dispositions of vehicles in the empty neutral sand. He once described it to me as more like a war fought at sea than on land, a sequence of advances and retreats in which the participants related only to each other and barely at all to the landscape across which they moved. A war in which there was nothing to get in the way  - no towns, no villages, no people - and nothing tangible to  gain or lose.

P. Lively, Moon Tiger (1987), 72-73

Cynical in the thorough-going way of those who have not so farencountered much to be cynical about

Potts  had been a science student at Manchester University, bright, articulate, cynical in the thorough-going way of those who have not so far encountered much to be cynical about. The war, he insisted loudly, flushed with wine, was feathering the nests of profiteers. It was being fought to safeguard access to the oil wells of Mesopotamia. It had nothing, absoluely nothing, to do with Belgian neutrality, the rights of small nations or anything like that. And if Hallet thought it had, then Hallet was a naive idiot. Hallet came from an old army family and had been well and expensively educated to think as little as possible; confronted by Potts, he floundered, but then quickly began to formulate beliefs he had hitherto believed everybody shared.

P. Barker, The ghost road (1995), 143