ABSTRACT
The concept of war governing those encounters has long been so strongly entrenched that it is not even commonly recognized as a result of particular circumstances, but instead seen as a universal. Much is implicit in American political discourse, the official manuals of the US military services, and the popular understanding of the very word "war" when the United States is a protagonist. The casualties of war were not a decisive consideration, within reasonable limits, so long as the Napoleonic concept still applied. The concept originally emerged in reaction to the typical warfare of eighteenth-century Europe, ridiculed by Napoleon and systematically criticized by Carl von Clausewitz. Unfortunately, so long as the Napoleonic concept prevails, it is impossible to exploit their full capacity to achieve warlike results without the casualties of war. A new post-Napoleonic and post-Clausewitzian concept of war would require not only a patient disposition, but also a modest one.
