ABSTRACT
What, then, is achieved by a war of the kind we have seen and experienced? First, it makes possible a greater mobilization of human resources, political, economic and military, and also extraction of material resources especially from the population, than could be expected in other circumstances and for other objectives. Second, the destruction of infrastructure, which also destroys communities by creating a more primitive lifestyle, enables the authorities to become the permanent arbiters of the basic, everyday needs of the population, not only during the war but afterwards. The population has become the hostage and client of the authorities; the state is no longer a civil body serving the public good, but the allocator of all possible resources even for the most elementary, everyday needs. This makes it possible to monopolize the distribution of property, and thereby ensure permanent loyalty of the population to the parties, politicians and others who administered the war and its aftermath.
