Crush Your Enemies

A lot of interesting talk about this article, Six Reasons why Starship Troopers is the new Art of War, best quote, from the book itself:

"Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than any other factor, and contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst."

This is exactly right.

Giving peace a chance just makes the war worse.  Conan says 'crush your enemies' and he is right. First, think about all the conflicts that are allowed to fester, the Arab-Israeli Wars, the Korean War, various sundry wars in Africa. These are wars, especially the first, where the great powers intervene to bring about a cease fire, which will of course eventually break.

Now think of absolute victory. There are obvious examples, of course, WWII, the Civil War, the Carthaginian Wars. In each of this conflict the good guys utterly annihilated the enemy. They weren't nice about it. They weren't PC, they just won. It is difficult to imagine Sherman conducting his March to the Sea in today's climate. The same people who apologize for Islamic terrorists would apologize for slave owning southerners. Complete victory is not limited to the good guys. In Vietnam, the North Vietnamese wiped South Vietnam off the map and brought about a peace on their terms.

Google 'Carthaginian Peace'. This kind of peace is long lasting and makes friends of enemies. Just ask Germany and Japan.