Martin Van Creveld Quotes

• Our armed forces are not the thirtieth strongest in the world, but rather the second or third. We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that this will happen before Israel goes under.

  Martin Van Creveld

  Israel, World, Force

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• We possess several hundred atomic warheads and rockets and can launch them at targets in all directions, perhaps even at Rome. Most European capitals are targets of our air force.

  Martin Van Creveld

  Air, Rome, Target

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• War is the greatest fun man can have with his pants on.

  Martin Van Creveld

  Fun, War, Men

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• As history since Hiroshima shows, the best, perhaps the only, way to curb war is to deter it with such overwhelming force as to turn it from a struggle into suicide.

  Martin Van Creveld

  Suicide, War, Struggle

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• The enemy resembles us. Therefore, he needs to be approached not as an assembly of 'targets' to be destroyed one by one; but as a living, intelligent entity capable of acting and reacting.

  Martin Van Creveld

  Military, Intelligent, Enemy

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• A world without war is not in the cards.

  Martin Van Creveld

  War, Cards, World

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• It is simply not true that war is solely a means to an end, nor do people necessarily fight in order to obtain this objective or that. In fact, the opposite is true: people very often take up one objective or another precisely in order that they may fight.

  Martin Van Creveld

  War, Mean, Fighting

  Martin Van Creveld (2009). “Transformation of War”, p.226, Simon and Schuster

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• I want to put any number of assorted 'ists' - such as relativists, deconstructionists, destructivists, postmodernists, the more maudlin kind of pacifists and feminists - firmly in their place.

  Martin Van Creveld

  Numbers, Feminist, Want

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• In the future as in the past, both Clausewitz and Sun Tzu will undoubtedly have a lot to offer.

  Martin Van Creveld

  Past, Sun, Offers

  Sonshi.com Interview, www.sonshi.com.

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• If you are strong and fighting the weak, then if you kill your opponent then you are a scoundrel... if you let him kill you, then you are an idiot.

  Martin Van Creveld

  Strong, Fighting, Opponents

  "Sharon’s Last Option". Interview with Jennifer Byrne, www.counterpunch.org. November 16, 2002.

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• Except when war is waged in a desert, noncombatants, also known as civilians or "the people," constitute the great majority of those affected.

  Martin Van Creveld

  War, People, Majority

  Martin Van Creveld (2009). “Transformation of War”, p.72, Simon and Schuster

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• The combination of professionalism and technology may also result in narrow-minded specialization more suited to a debating society than to an organization whose task it is to cope with, and indeed live in, the dangerous and uncertain environment of war.

  Martin Van Creveld

  Military, War, Technology

  Martin Van Creveld (2010). “Technology and War: From 2000 B.C. to the Present”, p.149, Simon and Schuster

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• The problem is that you cannot prove yourself against someone who is much weaker than yourself.

  Martin Van Creveld

  Problem, Proving Yourself, Prove

  "Sharon’s Last Option". Interview with Jennifer Byrne, www.counterpunch.org. November 16, 2002.

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• The problem is that you cannot prove yourself against someone who is much weaker than yourself. They are in a lose/lose situation. If you are strong and fighting the weak, then if you kill your opponent then you are a scoundrel... if you let him kill you, then you are an idiot. So here is a dilemma which others have suffered before us, and for which as far as I can see there is simply no escape.

  Martin Van Creveld

  Strong, Fighting, Opponents

  "Sharon’s Last Option" by Martin Van Creveld, www.counterpunch.org. November 16, 2002.

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• Obviously, we don't want Iran to have nuclear weapons and I don't know if they're developing them, but if they're not developing them, they're crazy.

  Martin Van Creveld

  Crazy, Iran, Nuclear

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• Sun Tzu does not need my praise. His work has lived for over two thousand years, and will surely live for another two thousand without any help from me.

  Martin Van Creveld

  Years, Two, Doe

  Sonshi.com Interview, www.sonshi.com.

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• Never' is too much of a word. Nothing lasts forever.

  Martin Van Creveld

  Forever, Too Much, Lasts

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• Assuming China does not become destabilized and continues to grow, it will no doubt develop a military program in proportion to its resources.

  Martin Van Creveld

  Military, Doubt, Doe

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