Years ago, I did a directed reading on war and peace, looking especially at whether they intersected on the level of strategy and practice.
In the last few days the issues of pacificism and war as well as the possibility of using such things as aikido and other unarmed martial arts and apply them to policy and politics have bubbled to the surface.
Perhaps the list of quotes I gathered, this old commonplace book on the topic, can add another flavor to the stew.
The Cunning of History by Richard L. Rubinstein
NY: Harper and Row, 1975
(7) "During WWII, German mass violence against enemy civilians was intensified after the victims had surrendered."
(8) "Von Falkenhayn's strategy was biological. His objective at Verdun was to exterminate as many of the enemy as possible."
(25) At Dachau - "The intent of Eicke's regulations was to eliminate all arbitrary punishment by individual guards and to replace it with impersonal, anonymous punishment... Like everything else at the camps, under Himmler punishment was bureaucratized and depersonalized."
(45) The basic contradiction - "The slave was a human being who was treated as a thing and defined as such in law. Every system of slavery until the 20th century experienced a certain tension because of the contradiction. The Nazis were the first masters to resolve it. They were able to turn human beings into instruments wholly responsive to their will even when told to lie down in their own graves and be shot."
(63) About the success of IG Farben executives after the WWII - "My point in raising this issue is neither to express my own nor to arouse my readers' moral indignation. It is difficult to study the period without becoming convinced of the utter irrelevance of moral indignation as a response to what took place."
(77) "If nothing else, the fact that the best and most selfless Jewish leaders presented no greater obstacle when the Nazis took over their communities than did the most opportunistic raises some very terrifying questions about the potentialities of bureaucratic domination in modern society."
The Art of War by Sun Tzu, translated by Samuel B. Griffith
London: Oxford Univ Press, London, 1963
(63) "War is a matter of vital importance to the State; the province of life or death, the road to ruin or survival. It is mandatory that it be thoroughly studied."
(66) "All warfare is based on deception."
(73) "Victory is the main object in war. If this is long delayed, weapons are blunted and morale depressed... while we have heard of blundering swiftness in war, we have not yet seen a clever operation that was prolonged.
"For there has never been a protracted war from which a country has benefited."
(73) "Thus those unable to understand the dangers inherent in employing troops are equally unable to understand the advantageous ways of doing so."
(77) "For to win 100 victories in 100 battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill." [more on page 77]
(84) "Therefore I say, 'Know the enemy and know yourself, in 100 battles you will never be in peril.'
"When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal.
"If you are ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril."
(93) "Thus, those skilled at making the enemy move do so by creating a situation to which he must conform; they entice him with something he is certain to take and with lures of ostensible profit they await him in strength.
"Therefore a skilled commander seeks victory from the situation and does not demand it of his subordinates."
(115) "There are five qualities which are dangerous in the character of a general. If reckless, he can be killed; if cowardly, captured; if quick-tempered, you can make a fool of him; if he is of a compassionate nature you can harass him."
(119) "When the enemy's envoys speak in humble terms but he continues his preparations he will advance."
(129) "And therefore I say, 'Know the enemy, know yourself; your victory will never be endangered. Know the ground, know the weather; your victory will then be total.'"
(136) "It is the business of a general to be serene and inscrutable, impartial and self-controlled."
(142) "If not in the interests of the state, do not act. if you cannot succeed, do not use troops. If you are not in danger, do not fight."
The Art of War by Wu Ch'i, translated by Samuel B. Griffith
(151) "Therefore, a ruler who is unable to advance when he confronts the enemy is not Righteous and one who looks upon the corpses of those killed in battle and mourns them is not Benevolent."
(152) "To win victory is easy; to preserve its fruits, difficult. And therefore it is said that when the all-under-Heaven is at war, one who gains five victories suffers calamity; one who gains four is exhausted; one who gains three becomes the lord Protector; one who gains two, a King; one who gains one, the Emperor. Thus he who by countless victories has gained empire is unique, while those who have perished thereby are many."
(153) "Wu Tzu said:
"Now there are five matters which give rise to military operations. First, the struggle for fame; second, the struggle for advantage; third, the accumulation of animosity; fourth, internal disorder; and fifth, famine.
"There are five categories of war. First, the righteous war; second, aggressive war; third, enraged war; fourth, wanton war; and fifth, insurgent war. Wars to suppress violence and quell disorder are Righteous. Those which depend on force are aggressive. When troops are raised because rulers are actuated by anger, this is enraged war. Those in which all propriety is discarded because of greed are wanton wars. Those who, when the state is in disorder and the people exhausted, stir up trouble and agitate the multitude, cause insurgent wars.
"There is a suitable method for dealing with each: a righteous war must be forestalled by proper government; an aggressive war by humbling one's self; an enraged war by reason; a wanton war by deception and treachery; and an insurgent war by authority."
(154) "Marquis Wu asked: 'I should like to know the way to make my battle formations certainly firm, my defense strong, and how in battle to be certain of winning.'
"Wu Ch'i replied: 'These things may be seen at once. How is it that you wish to hear of them? If Your Majesty can employ the worthy in high position, and those who are worthless in inferior position, then the array will already be firm. If people are secure in their farms and dwellings and friendly with their magistrates, then your defenses are already strong. If the clans approve of their own sovereign and disapprove of others, then the battles are already won.'"
(159) "Wu Ch'i said: 'Now the field of battle is a land of standing corpses; those determined to die will live; those who hope to escape with their lives will die.
'A good general at commanding troops is like one sitting in a leaking boat or lying under a burning roof. For there is not time for the wise to offer counsel nor the brave to be angry. All must come to grips with the enemy. And therefore it is said that of all the dangers in employing troops, timidity is the greatest and that the calamities which overtake an army arise from hesitation.'"
(161) discussion of generalship - "To unite resolution with resilience is the business of war."
(167) "Marquis Wu asked: 'Are severe punishments and enlightened rewards sufficient to ensure victory?'
"Wu Ch'i replied: 'As to the matter of severity in punishment and enlightenment in rewards, I am not able to comprehend the whole of it. However, they cannot exclusively be relied upon. Now to publish orders and make known commands which the troops happily obey, to raise the army and mobilize the people in such a way that men are happy to fight, and when they cross swords, happy to face death, are the three matters in which a sovereign places his reliance.'"
The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi, translated by Victor Harris
Woodstock, NY: The OverlookPress, 1982
(38) "Generally speaking, the Way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death."
(82) "There are various kinds of spirit involved in letting go the hilt.
"There is the spirit of winning without a sword. There is also the spirit of holding the long sword but not winning. The various methods cannot be expressed in writing. You must train well."
(95) "In the void is virtue, and no evil. Wisdom has existence, principle has existence, the Way has existence, spirit is nothingness."
Ha Ga Kure by Tsunetomo Yamamoto, translated by William S. Wilson
NY: Avon Books, 1981
(30) "Above all, the Way of the Samurai should be in being aware that you do not know what is going to hapen next and in querying every item day and night."
(41) "The saying 'the arts aid the body' is for samurai of other regions. For samurai of the Nabeshima caln the arts bring ruin to the body. In all cases, the person who practices an art is an artist, not a samurai, and on eshould have the intention of being called a samurai.
"When on he has the conviction that even the slightest artful ability is harmful to the samurai, all the arts become useful to him. One should understand this sort of thing."
(45) "Lord Naoshige said, 'The Way of the Samurai is in desperateness. Ten men or more cannot kill such a man. Common sense will not accomplish great things. Simply become insane and desperate.'"
(50) "Being superior to others is nothing other than having people talk about your affairs and listening to their opinions. The general run of people settle for their own opinions and thus never excel. Having a discussion with a person is one step in excelling him."
(57) "What is called generosity is really compassion. In the Shin'ei it is written, 'Seen from the eye of comapssion, there is no one to be disliked. One who has sinned is to be pitied all the more.' There is no limit to the breadth and depth of one's heart. There is room enough for all. That we still worship the sages of the three ancient kingdoms is because their compassion reaches us yet today.
"Whatever you do should be done for the sake of your master and parents, the people in general, and for posterity. This is great compassion. The wisdom and courage that come from compassion are real wisdom and courage. When one punishes or strives with the heart of compassion, what he does will be limitless in strength and correctness. Doing something for one's own sake is shallow and mean and turns into evil. I understood the matters of wisdom and courage some time ago. I am just now beginning to understand the matter of compassion.
"Lord Ieyasu said, 'The foundation for ruling the country in peace is compassion, for when one thinks of the people as being his children, the people will think of him as their parent.' Moreover, can't it be thought that the names 'group parent (leader)' and 'group child (member)' are so called because they are attached to each other by the harmonious hearts of a parent-child relationship?
"One can understand that Lord Naoshige's phrase, 'A faultfinder will come to be punished by others,' came from his compassion. His saying, 'Principle is beyond reason' should also be considered compassion. He enthusiastically stated that we should taste the inexhaustible."
(60) "Master Ittei said, 'If one were to say what it is to do good, in a single word it would be to endure suffering. Not enduring is bad without exception.'"
(68) "There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man's whole life is a succession of moment after moment. If one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue. Live being true to the single purpose of the moment.
"Everyone lets the present moment slip by, then looks for it as though he thought it were somewhere else. No one seems to have noticed this fact. But grasping this firmly, one must pile experience upon experience. And once one has come to this understanding he will be a different person from that point on, though he may not always bear it in mind.
"When one understands this settling into single-mindedness well, his affairs will thin out. Loyalty is also contained within this single-mindedness."
(82) "Nothing you do will have effect if you do not use the truth."
(83) "If one wraps up everything with a heart of compassion, there will be no coming into conflict with people."
(94) "A monk cannot fulfill the Buddhist Way if he does not manifest compassion without and persistently store up courage within. And if a warrior does not manifest courage on the outside and hold enough compassion within his heart to burst his chest, he cannot become a retainer. Therefore, the monk pursues courage with the warrior as his model, and the warrior pursues the compassion of the monk."
(99) "Narutomi Hyogo said, 'What is called winning is defeating one's allies. Defeating one's allies is defeating oneself, and defeating oneself is vigorously overcoming one's own body.
"'It is as though a man were in the midst of ten thousand allies but not a one were following him. If one hasn't previously mastered his mind and body, he will not defeat the enemy.'"
(151) "Also, in addition to having spoken sufficiently it is the highest sort to teach your opponent something that will be to his benefit. This is in accordance with the Way."
(158) "If a warrior is not unattached to life and death, he will be of no use whatsoever. The saying that 'All abilities come from the mind' sounds as though it has to do with sentient matters but it is in fact a matter of being unattached to life and death. With such non-attachment one can accomplish any feat. Martial arts and the like are related to this insofar as they can lead to the Way."
On Aggression _ by Konrad Lorentz
NY: Harcourt Brace, 1966
(18) on the "poster fish" "When one examines the aggressive and more or less non-aggressive species, it is evident that there is a connection between coloring, aggressiveness, and sedentary territorial habits."
(38-39) "We can safely assume that the most important function of intra-specific aggression is the even distribution of animals of a particular species over an inhabitable area, but it is certainly not its only one. Charles Darwin had already observed that sexual selection, the selection of the best and strongest animals for reproduction, was furthered by the fighting of rival animals, particularly males."
(49-50) "Knowledge of the fact that the aggression drive is a true primarily species-preserving instinct enables us to recognize its full danger: it is the spontaneity of the instinct that makes it so dangerous. It was Freud who... showed that lack of social contact and above all deprivation of it (Liebesverlust), were among the factors strongly predisposing to facilitate aggression."
(126) in the context of some species' male forebearance of female violence "... that not-being-impressed makes a deep impression is a very general principle, as was shown by... G. Kitzler."
(148) "We do not know of a single animal which is capable of personal friendship and which lacks aggression."
(170) "Most of the known cases of redirected activity concern aggressive behaviour elicited by an object which simultaneously evokes fear."
Bicycling - being aggressive to an inferior rather than to an offending superior
(179) "From self-observation I can safely assert tht shared laughter not only diverts aggression but also produces a feelign of social unity." Laughter and smiling as aggression redirected "greeting" ritual
(188) "... rebound effect. Aggression having been discharged at the hostile neighbor, tenderness toward the mate and children wells up unchecked." And vice versa?
(227) "None of our Western languages has an intransitive verb to do justice to the increase of values produced by very nearly every step in evolution. One cannot possibly call it development when something new and higher arises from an earlier style which does not contain the constituent properties for the new and higher being."
(229) "Far from seeing in man the irrevocable and unsurpassable image of God, I assert - more modestly and, I believe, in greater awe of the Creation and its infinite possibilities - that the long-sought missing link between animals and the really humane being is ourselves."
(242) "Humanity would indeed have destroyed itself by its first inventions were it not for the very wonderful fact that inventions and responsibililty are both the achievements of the same specifically human faculty of asking questions."
(252) "To have a large number of 'acquaintances' many of whom may be faithful allies with a legitimate claim to be regarded as real friends, overtaxes a man's capacity for personal love and dilutes the intensity of his emotional attachment."
(268-269) "militant enthusiasm" - objectively, a shiver down the back, straightening of body, chin stuck out - just like a chimp would in making his hair bristle
NB: related to "brazen audacity"?
(271) "Humanity is not enthusiastically combative because ti si split into political parties, but it is divided into opposing camps because this is the adequate situation to arouse militant enthusiasm in a satisfying manner."
(293-295) laughter and humor as antidotes to aggression
_Selected Essays by Leo Tolstoy
NY: Random House, 1964
(182) from "Address to Swedish Peace Congress"
"What form the life of man will take if they repudiate murder, we do not and cannot know; but one thing is certain: that it is more natural for men to be guided by Reason and conscience with which they are endowed, than to submit slavishly to people who arrange wholesale murders; and that therefore the form of social order assumed by the lives of those who are guided in their actions not by violence based on threats of murder but by reason and conscience, will in any case be no worse than that under which they now live."
(270) From The Kingdom of God
"If men may and should torture, kill, and commit every sort of crime at the will of those in power, there is and can be no moral law, but only a recognition of the right of the strong."
(336) from "What's To Be Done?"
"If your question What's to be done? is really a question and not a justification, and if you put it as you should do to yourselves, a quite clear and simple answer naturally suggests itself. The answer is that you must do not what the Tsar, Governor, police officers, Duma or some political party demands of you, but what is natural to you as a man, what is demanded of you by that Power which sent you into the World - the Power most people are accustomed to call God.
"... This law is that men, to fulfill their destiny and attain their greatest welfare, should help one another, love one another, and in any case not attack each other's liberty and life."
(341) from "I Cannot Be Silent"
"... at the demand of reason and calulation that silence feeling."
All Men Are Brothers by Mohandas Gandhi
Paris: UNESCO, 1958
(19) "It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honored by the humiliation of their fellow-beings."
(47) "I fancy I know the art of living and dying non-violently. But I have yet to demonstrate it by one perfect act."
(51) "When I have become incapable of evil and when nothing harsh or haughty occupies, be it momentarily, my thought-world, then, and not till then, my non-violence willmove all the hearts of all the world."
(51) "There is a stage in life when a man does not need to proclaim his thoughts much less to show them by outward action. Mere thoughts act. They attain that power. Then it can be said of him that his seeming inaction constitutes his action... My striving is in that direction."
(84) "The method of passive resistance is the clearest and safest, because, if the cause is not true, it is the resisters and they alone, who suffer."
(94) "When two nations are fighting, the duty of a votary of ahimsa is to stop the war. He who is not equal to that duty, he who has no power of resisting war, he who is not qualified to resist war, may take part in war and yet wholehearedly try to free himself, his nation and the world from war."
(97) "The strength to kill is not essential for self defence; one ought to have the strength to die. When a man is fully ready to die, he will not even desire to offer violence. Indeed, I may put it down as a self-evident proposition that the desire to kill is in inverse proportion to the desire to die."
(104) "I do believe that, where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence."
(123) "If there is no greed, there would be no occasion for armaments. The principle of non-violence necessitates complete abstention from explotiation in any form."
War Without Violence by Krishnalal Shridharani
NY: Harcourt Brace, 1939
(xxiii) "Instead of working against war, in most cases we work in vain for peace. Conflict, competition, strife and struggle, however, are not the enemy we are after... it is war we are against; for as a means of settling... disputes, war has failed."
(4) "Satyagraha means insistence on truth... presupposes... a grievance which practically every member of that community feels... that can be transformed into a 'cause' rightfully claiming sacrifice and suffering... Satyagraha suggests itself."
(45) in event of invasion "non-violent soldiers would oppose the invasion with mass satyagraha to the point of mass death if necessary."
(46) "... it is braver still to refuse to fight and yet refuse to yield to the usurper." Gandhi
(76) "... never letting the consciousness of injustice leave the opponent."
(79) To emphasize "human bond and fundamental unity" between opposing forces, Satyagrahis dedicate themselves to service of the "enemy" when he is in difficulty, thus Gandhi suspended his strike when South African railway strike was on (and against England during WWI)
(81) Many times mere "preparedness" brings victory to a disciplined group steeled in determination
(88-89) "... in a sturdy endurance of whatever tragedy might ensue."
(93) "If I were a Jew and were born in Germany and earned my livelihood there, I would claim Germany as my hone, even as the tallest Gentile may, and challenge him to shoot me or to cast me into a dungeon. I would refuse to be expelled or to submit to discriminating treatment." Gandhi, NY Times 12/7/38
(113) Francis Deak, Hungarian Catholic, used non-violent direct action in Finalnd 1901-1905 under Emperor Franz Josef
(154) Satyagraha has no anger but suffers opponent's anger; will not submit to any order given in anger; will not resist arrest or attachment of property, never insults an opponent, will protect an opponent from insult or attack; will observe prison discipline, no distinction between self and ordinary prisoner; obeys all orders of corps leader, and entrustrs dependents to God.
(169) "... the faith that desired ends may be attained through suffering when it is voluntary and undertaken in the spirit of sacrifice."
(171) All sacrifices are for the sake of realizing self, see Chandogya Upanishad
(275) "The appeal of reason is more to the head, but the penetration of the heart comes from suffering. It opens the inner understanding in men." Gandhi
(282) There is offensive non-violent action as in takeover of salt depots
(293) There is an element of coercion in satyagraha to bring both parties to equality and agreement.
(305) "... empty-handed individual with a just cause appeals directly to another individual, human to human, for the right to live and be free."
(307) Satyagraha breaks the pattern of depersonalized force met by counter-force the Western world knows so well.
(312) the readiness to fight and die for one's values
(314) Satyagraha takes inititative and forces the oppressor to be brutal and injurious.
Strength to Love by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1981
(9) "Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves." Matthew 10:16
(48) "It is also necessary to realize that the forgiving act must always be initiated by the person who has been wronged, the victim of some great hurt, the recipient of some tortuous injustice, the absorber of some terrible act of oppression."
(52) "... hate divides the personality and love in an amazing and inexorable way unites it."
(52) "... we get rid of an enemy by getting rid of enmity."
(53) Abraham Lincoln: "Madam, do I not destory my enemies when I make them my friends?" This is the power of redemptive love.
Boston Sunday Globe 6/1/83 page 67
Dr Louis Jolyon West of UCLA reported that the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico's Sierra Madre show no personal violence, never steal, don't punish their children. No inoculation of guilt. But they will unite to combat violent neighbors.