On War by Carl Von Clausewitz | A Reading

"War is simply a continuation of political intercourse, with the addition of other means". Those last two words, "other means", have always left me feeling somewhat uneasy. Is it not, after all, a kind of euphemism, a gentle phrase more agreeable to sensitive ears, behind which all the horrors of war--all the carnage, bloodshed, conquest, death, and loss--are too neatly concealed? Perhaps. But we mustn't forget, war is nothing more than a instrument of policy. An especially lethal one, it may well be, but it's an instrument nonetheless.