And where do you think can be a spark will come from today?
We do not know, and we cannot know. Today, many of the nations, even terrorist organizations, are eager to obtain weapons of mass destruction. The nuclear missile that will destroy Washington, DC, and Moscow can be launched from a place which no one ever considers a real threat. Pneumonia, anthrax or Ebola could devastate our country, and the source will be a country that no one would ever consider to be a powerful enemy.
Features of war have changed as much as the crossbow gave way to a musket, and rifle replaced the musket. A clumsy, almost useless aircraft in 1914 turned into a fighter jet and an intercontinental ballistic missile in 2000. But there is something that has not changed. I usually end my discussion on this topic with three quotations. One I mentioned in our conversation, but it’s worth repeating.
“War is hell, and there is no way to avoid it.”—General William Tecumseh Sherman, 1865
“War—it will not play fair. I am not here to teach you to play fair; I’m here to teach you how to win.”—Master Sergeant Maxwell Ritter, U.S. Army, 1968
“As long as minds grasp the philosophy and the passion burning in their hearts, there will be war.”
The Sherman quote seems to be something of an urban legend . The others can’t be found or placed. RJ probably paraphrased them in the first place, and the rest might have been garbled in retranslation.
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