Asking who won a given war, someone has said, is like asking who won the San Francisco earthquake. That in war there is no victory but only varying degrees of defeat is a proposition that has gained increasing acceptance in the twentieth century.
Interpretation
War leads to loss for all involved, rather than a clear victory for one side.
Kenneth Waltz emphasizes that the concept of victory in war is misleading, as the destructive consequences affect all participants, much like the catastrophic impact of an earthquake. This perspective suggests that wars do not have true winners, but rather leave all sides with varying levels of defeat and suffering, highlighting the futility and tragedy of armed conflict.
In practice
During a discussion on the impact of war in history classes.
The President to-night has a dream: - He was in a party of plain people, and, as it became known who he was, they began to comment on his appearance. One of them said: - "He is a very common-looking man". The President replied: - "The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is the reason he makes so many of them".
I do not want to convince Christians to work for the abolition of war, but rather I want us to live recognizing that in the cross of Christ, war has been abolished.
To be desired is perhaps the closest anybody in this life can reach to feeling immortal.
When pain is unbearable it destroys us; when it does not it is bearable.
The characteristic feature of modernity is criticism: what is new is set over and against what is old, and it is this constant contrast that constitutes the continuity of tradition.
...it was always our view that in order to attain this [proletarian revolution] and the other far more important aims of the future social revolution, the working class must first take possession of the organised political power of the state and by its aid crush the resistance of the capitalist class and organise society anew.
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