Source: The Patriot Light | AWK Network | VIEW ORIGINAL POST ==>
The phrase “War is politics by other means” has been repeated ad nauseum over the years, but its origins have been lost to time. Some attribute the quote to Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz in the 1800s, but the sentiment almost certainly preceded him. In the late 1600s, King Louis XIV of France ordered his cannons engraved with the words Ultima Ratio Regum — “The Last Argument of Kings.” More than a hundred years earlier, Niccolo Machiavelli famously noted that war was simply a tool to achieve a desired political outcome.
What the king can’t accomplish from the seat of his throne, you see, he can accomplish via the tip of his sword. So, when you strip away the lofty rhetoric and righteous indignation, war was just a militarized extension of politics — the natural, inevitable consequence when words alone were inadequate.
But if war is politics with weapons, what, then, is politics?
Politics is show biz, baby! It’s the art of maximizing your agenda, protecting your interests, and lining your pockets.
And quite honestly, the Europeans are WAY better at it than we are.
Ever since the end of World War II, Americans have…
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