Four Elements Make Up The Climate Of

War Is Nothing But A Continuation Of Politics With The Admixture Of Other Means.

Modern Wars Are Seldom Fought Without Hatred Between Nations; This Serves More Or Less As A Substitute For Hatred Between Individuals.

If We Consider The Actual Basis Of This Information [i.e., Intelligence], How Unreliable And Transient It Is, We Soon Realize That War Is A Flimsy Structure That Can Easily Collapse And Bury Us In Its Ruins. ... Many Intelligence Reports In War Are Contradictory; Even More Are False, And Most Are Uncertain. This Is True Of All Intelligence But Even More So In The Heat Of Battle, Where Such Reports Tend To Contradict And Cancel Each Other Out. In Short, Most Intelligence Is False, And The Effect Of Fear Is To Multiply Lies And Inaccuracies.

Criticism Exists Only To Recognize The Truth, Not To Act As Judge.

We Must Evaluate The Political Sympathies Of Other States And The Effect War May Have On Them. To Assess These Things In All Their Ramifications And Diversity Is Plainly A Colossal Task. Rapid And Correct Appraisal Of Them Clearly Calls For The Intuition Of A Genius; To Master All This Complex Mass By Sheer Methodical Examination Is Obviously Impossible. Bonaparte Was Quite Right When He Said That Newton Himself Would Quail Before The Algebraic Problems It Could Pose.