Total War Quotes

“The state is a fragile organization, and the statesman does not have the moral right to risk its survival on ethical restraint.”
― Henry Kissinger, World Order

“Jacobinism, born amidst the revolutionary fervor of 1789, harbored but a singular aspiration: the complete and total eradication of Christendom. When we behold the world through such a prism in the present day, it becomes evident that we are in the midst of an exterminating conflict that bears the hallmarks of nothing less than a total war.”
― Isaiah Senones

“If we examine Lee first upon the art at which he surpassed, we find a curiously dispassionate understanding not just of the technique, but of the place of war in the life of civilized man. Napoleon too was a philosopher of battle, but his utterances are marred by cynicism. Those of Lee have always the saving grace of affirmation. Let us mount with the general the heights above Fredericksburg and hear from him one of the most searching observations ever made. It is contained in a brief remark, so innocent-seeming, yet so disturbing, expressed as he gazed upon the field of slain on that December day. "It is well this is terrible; otherwise we should grow fond of it."

What is the meaning? It is richer than a Delphic saying. Here is a poignant confession of mankind’s historic ambivalence toward the institution of war, its moral revulsion against the immense destructiveness, accompanied by a fascination with the “greatest of all games.” As long as people relish the idea of domination, there will be those who love this game. It is fatuous to say, as is being said now, that all men want peace. Men want peace part of the time, and part of the time they want war. Or, if we may shift to the single individual, part of him wants peace and another part wants war, and it is upon the resolution of this inner struggle that our prospect of general peace depends, as MacArthur so wisely observed upon the decks of the Missouri. The cliches of modern thought have virtually obscured this commonplace of human psychology, and world peace programs take into account everything but this tragic flaw in the natural man—the temptation to appeal to physical superiority. There is no political structure which knaves cannot defeat, and subtle analyses of the psyche may prove of more avail than schemes for world parliament. In contrast with the empty formulations of propagandists, Lee’s saying suggests the concrete wisdom of a parable.”
― Richard M. Weaver, The Southern Essays of Richard M. Weaver

“Somewhere nearby, artillery thundered. Vast fields — flat as a table, without a single tree — turned any moving figure into an easy target against the monotonous landscape, drawing German pilots toward whatever appeared below.
Twice already, the exhausted and terrified prisoners were strafed by Junkers aircraft returning from their missions, deciding to use up their remaining ammunition. At the command of the group leader — a State Security lieutenant — everyone scattered in all directions. Yet despite this, nearly twenty people, including soldiers, were killed by the bullets of the German vultures.
Roughly the same number were executed by the guards themselves. Anyone seriously wounded, anyone unable to keep walking, was shot on the spot.
— Volodymyr Shablia, Stone. Book One


Context note:
During the first weeks of the German–Soviet War in 1941, prisoners and soldiers are driven across the open steppe. Caught between German air attacks and Soviet security forces, the weak and wounded are systematically eliminated. The scene exposes the brutal logic of total war on the Eastern Front.”
― Володимир Шабля, Камень. Биографический роман: Часть первая. Первые шаги к свету и обратно