Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 2:39:02-2:40:05

The perfect war fails because the enemy has a vote

A clean, precise conflict with no civilian harm and no surprises cannot exist when each side defines necessity and acceptable violence differently.

Civilian HarmEthics Of WarMilitary StrategySpecial Forces
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Question

What is a perfect war, and why is it impossible?

Short answer

It is an imagined clean and predictable conflict, but opposing plans, interests, and definitions of acceptable action prevent both sides from keeping it that way.

Notes

The imagined perfect war is clean, precise, remote from civilians, and fully controlled. A plan working perfectly for one belligerent is unlikely to be working for the other. Special-forces raids and attacks on war-production factories show how military targets can still be judged differently and place civilians at risk. Both opponents would have to accept the same limits while trying to defeat one another, which leaves the perfect war as an academic ideal rather than a practical model.