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While this article is not all to recent, I found that this article first published on Task & Purpose written by US Army Veteran Stephen Carlson, to be a great read this morning.
For those that might have slept through history class, there was little thing that happened in America called the Civil War and during that time, a man known at W.T. Sherman surrounded a city you may not know of called Atlanta. The people of the city wrote a letter to Sherman asking him to revoke his orders to have the city evacuated. His response back to the city has entered into our history books as one of the best definitions of war. In part, he defines war as the following:
"War is cruelty and you cannot refine it..."
So I am just wondering, how do modern Veterans define war? Looking back at all you saw and all you went through, if someone would to pull you aside or when your kids ask you, how would you define war?
For those that might have slept through history class, there was little thing that happened in America called the Civil War and during that time, a man known at W.T. Sherman surrounded a city you may not know of called Atlanta. The people of the city wrote a letter to Sherman asking him to revoke his orders to have the city evacuated. His response back to the city has entered into our history books as one of the best definitions of war. In part, he defines war as the following:
"War is cruelty and you cannot refine it..."
So I am just wondering, how do modern Veterans define war? Looking back at all you saw and all you went through, if someone would to pull you aside or when your kids ask you, how would you define war?
Posted in these groups: 
Warfare
Warfare
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 5
SGT Ben Keen
CPT Aaron Kletzing - There is a double edge sword that comes with war when looking at cruelty. Yes I agree that war is often fought to prevent cruelty, but sometimes to stop cruelty you have to take actions that may be view as cruelty.
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Great read and thanks for posting. Interesting to read this and then think about how quickly it was forgotten by the time the First World War rolled around.
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SGT Ben Keen
SSG Izzy Abbass - Yes, it is interesting how quickly it was forgotten by the time World War I started and with this country preparing to enter yet another year of war against terrorism, how approiate it is to review such a topic.
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