[Dragaera] Sethra Lavode's Words on War

[Davdi Silverrock]

On Feb 10, 2008 11:04 PM, Maximilian Wilson wrote:

>
> my take on Sethra's words was that she was
> discussing tactics, not culpability.

After thinking about it some more...

I don't think Sethra was discussing either tactics or culpability, but
was simply stressing the pragmatic definition of war.  Thinking about
that definition might then lead to better strategy and tactics, but I
don't think it's a tactic in and of itself.

It's simply that until the defender reacts in some way against the
attack, an attack is just that, an attack.  It might be a
near-bloodless invasion and occupation, or a total genocidal massacre,
but it is not a *war* until you have at least two parties that are in
obvious conflict reacting to each other, trying to achieve opposing
goals.  It is that dynamic state that is a war.

I think she would agree that the attacker is culpable for his attacks,
as is the defender for his own reactions.

>
> Note that technology changes strategy, and in a war where offense
> outweighs defense heavily enough that there's no useful defense (ICBM
> warfare), the attacker is once again the one who "starts" the war.
>

If there's literally no reaction to the ICBMs, it's not a war.  As I
said, Sethra would call the ICBM strike an attack, not a war.

If the targeted country can respond with their own ICBMs, then it is a
war - started by the defender in response to the initial attack.

However, Sethra might call the nearly bloodless maneuvering leading up
to an ICBM strike a war.  But even that, she might well argue, would
be started by the defender.

I think.

There are interesting parallels to /Dragon/ in /Issola/, in the
discussions about the nature of courtesy and its purpose.  Teldra
describes courtesy in a very pragmatic, goal-directed, Dragon-like
way, perhaps from her exposure to so many Dragons for such a long
time.  But perhaps all Issola are indeed like that.