Carl Von Clausewitz on War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Carl Von Clausewitz on war - Essay ExampleAs an initial matter, if one wishes to understand how leaders and military strategists approach the issues associated with war, it is obligatory to understand the types of logic that they espouse. One school of thought, attributed to Karl Von Clausewitz, approaches war as a series of rational calculations. He rejects the notion that war is initiated, prosecuted, or terminated as a result of emotional whims quite the opposed he sets forth a detailed framework by which relevant actors either do or ought to consider at each stage. In effect, he establishes a type of cost-benefit analysis attached to a political objective lens. This cost-benefit analysis he has stated thuslywar is not an act of senseless heating system but is controlled by its political object, the value of this object essential determine the sacrifices to be made for it in magnitude and distance. Once the expenditure of efforts exceeds the value of the political object, t he object must be renounced and peace must follow (Von Clausewitz, 1873).This short statement contains a number of relevant factors relevant to the conduct and termination of a war. First, the political object must be understandably defined or it may become in truth challenging to engage in any type of cost-benefit analysis. Nations that do not have a clearly defined political objective, or which find themselves confronted with changing political objectives, may find themselves unable to picture meaningfully. Americas war in Iraq is a case in point to illustrate, the political object was publicly stated to be the need to eliminate a dictators possession of weapons of crapper destruction. This was a clearly defined political object and a cost-benefit analysis would have been rather straightforward. The American leadership could have determined the sacrifices, financially and in terms of lives lost, by determining the magnitude and duration of the military operation required to elim inate such weapons of mass destruction. A problem,