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116 Carl von Clausewitz’s On War June 27, 2003 I was fortunate to have an hour with Jonathan Schell this week. That interview will air soon on my program “World Focus” at 10:00 AM Sunday Mornings. Jonathan Schell has a new book, The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People, published by Metropolitan Books, New York. In this book, Schell makes a historical analysis of war using examples from von Clausewitz. Carl von Clausewitz was born in 1780 and died in 1831. His master work, On War has been called the greatest formal analysis of war ever made. If the five or six people who have taken power in the United States had read this book they might not have invaded Iraq. Here is the situation as describedbyJonathanSchellasheinterpretstheanalysisofvonClausewitz: The victor or his proconsul has taken up residency in the capital of the defeated nation. He issues an order. Do the defeated people obey? Do they “do his will?” Perhaps he thought he had won the victory when the enemy forces dissolved, but now it turns out, that decisions made by civilians far from the field of battle will determine whether he was truly victorious after all. For the war, “cannot be considered to have ended so long as the enemy’s will has not been broken.” In view of the fact that the Bush administration is living in the 19th century, we might look at von Clausewitz analysis of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812. Napoleon won every battle on his march to Moscow. The Russian forces retreated steadily, until he finally occupied the city— weren’t the Russians beaten? All readers of Tolstoy’s War and Peace know the will of Russia was intact. It was Napoleon who was on his way to ruin. Leaving the comments of Schell on von Clausewitz we are forced to ask ourselves, “Is this not the history of the War in Korea? The War in in 117 Vietnam? The Wars in Central America? The War in Panama? The War in Yugoslavia?TheWarinAfghanistanandofcourse,theongoingWarinIraq?” There is a component which von Clausewitz could not imagine, however, and that is the danger of unconscious and shallow humanoids plotting and planning the use of nuclear weapons. Jonathan Schell believes that in the 21st Century we must look to the philosophy of satyagraha or living truth. The empires of the world have always known the truth. Their error has been the biblical sin against the Spirit which is to know the truth and to willingly act against it. Imperial War has never been anything less than rape, murder and terrorism all in the name of a lie. Indeed the world is unconquerable by war but it surely can be destroyed by war. Now is the time to practice direct action and non-cooperation. Fear is contagious but courage is also contagious. Nonviolence and the will of the people are the formula for power against empire. ...

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