WAR

[Dr. Goodword]

• war •

Pronunciation: wawr • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. Full-scale armed military combat between two or more nations or regions. 2. A major struggle between two or more sides on an issue that involves active, unbridled attempts for one side to defeat the other(s) and in some sense win.

Notes: Although much energy is expended in the fight against four-letter words, the worst word in English contains only three letters. Today's holiday remembers all those who have died in the many wars of the United States. It began as a memorial for those who died in the Civil War but was changed to honor those who died in all wars after World War I. The traditional date of Memorial Day, from its founding in 1868 was May 30. In 1971, however, Congress changed this and other US holidays to "floating" dates and Memorial Day became the last Monday in May.

In Play: War is not a word to play with so we will treat it with the respect and dignity it deserves. Even though the invasion of Iraq is not legally a war (Congress never declared it a war), it is factually a war not only for our daughters and sons suffering in it but the Iraqis themselves. Today we salute not only those who have fallen in the past but those who, unfortunately, continue to fall today in war.

Word History: The history of today's Good Word is full of confusion even though we understand it perfectly. It goes back 5,000 years to a Proto-Indo-European root wers- "mix, confuse, stir up" which came through the Germanic languages to English as war and, most appropriately, worse and worst. It also turns up in German Wurst "sausage", mixed ingredients in a casing whose worst effect is a skirmish with the eater's stomach. Old French borrowed war from English but, having no W, it used the closest sound it had: GU ([gw] at the time), resulting in guerre "war" from which guerilla "warrior" derives. Old French also borrowed ward and gave us back guard along the same route.

[bnjtokyo]

From Nature, May 23: "Now, of course, 'war' is itself a debased and murky term. Nation states seem ready to declare war on anything: drugs, poverty, disease, terrorism."

[skinem]

From Nature, May 23: "Now, of course, 'war' is itself a debased and murky term. Nation states seem ready to declare war on anything: drugs, poverty, disease, terrorism."

...and all entirely successful!

I would agree the term's meaning has been diluted.

[gailr]

I gave a copy of Sun Tzu's Art of War to a recent grad in the family. We find it useful in academia and business, but its original (6 century) purpose was to soberly and honestly count the true costs of war before embarking upon one. As in other areas, those who cannot learn from history doom all of us to repeat it.

Sun Tzu said: The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin.

All warfare is based on deception.

...

Again, if the campaign is protracted, the resources of the State will not be equal to the strain.

Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardor damped, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. Then no man, however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue.

Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.

There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.

Poverty of the State exchequer causes an army to be maintained by contributions from a distance. Contributing to maintain an army at a distance causes the people to be impoverished.

...

Sun Tzu said: In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good.

Therefore the skillful leader subdues the enemy's troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field.

...

A whole army may be robbed of its spirit; a commander-in-chief may be robbed of his presence of mind.

...

Sun Tzu said: Raising a host of a hundred thousand men and marching them great distances entails heavy loss on the people and a drain on the resources of the State. The daily expenditure will amount to a thousand ounces of silver. There will be commotion at home and abroad, and men will drop down exhausted on the highways. As many as seven hundred thousand families will be impeded in their labor.

One who acts thus is no leader of men, no present help to his sovereign, no master of victory.

[skinem]

War! Huh. What is it good for?

Sun Tzu's been hard to improve upon. Nothing new under the sun!

[sluggo]

War! Huh. What is it good for?

Sun Tzu's been hard to improve upon. Nothing new under the sun!

Skin, that reminds me of another song:

I've just been so bluuue
Sun Tzu been gone... (a reefer Franklin)

[Stargzer]

War! Huh. What is it good for?

Sun Tzu's been hard to improve upon. Nothing new under the sun!

Skin, that reminds me of another song:

I've just been so bluuue
Sun Tzu been gone... (a reefer Franklin)

I always wondered what sluggo was smoking that generated that madness ...