Poll: Has war changed?

[darkfire613]

The methods of war have changed, but the motivations remain the same. No matter how far technology progresses, we will always be fighting over resources. Space, food, water, oil, etc. as well as going to war with anyone perceived as evil, not because we necessarily want to stop them, but because we want to look good. Wars will always be fought for greed, greed over resources, greed for attention, or just plain out money.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

Yes, dramatically. The nuclear bomb changed the nature of war forever. Yeah, I know. "War never changes". Liam Neeson isn't wrong often, but it does happen.

 

[Paksenarrion]

War. War never changes.

Damn, ninja'd.

War. War has changed.

 

[notsosavagemessiah]

war. war never changes.

yes, i know this has been posted a few times already but it's absolutely true. Bottom line is lots of people killing lots of other people over differing ideolgies. War never changes.

 

[Gigaguy64]

War never changes?

Go watch a movie with a cavalry charge, then go watch a WWI movie with trench warfare, and then watch a movie about the war in Iraq and tell me that war doesn't change.

Well, it doesn't.

The way we fight and the reasons behind a war may change.
But War itself never does.
Its been the same thing since man first fought each other.
People fighting until the opposing side gives up or is destroyed.

 

[Cain_Zeros]

The details and the way we fight have changed, but the basic idea is still the same. Too groups of people killing each other for a cause they don't really understand until one group gives up or doesn't exist.

 

[DanielDeFig]

Yes. War has changed. The technology and tactics have (obviously) changed tremendously, especially recently (enter the age of super-commando teams).

The reasons for waging war has also changed tremedously. From defending and taking territoy as ameans of survival, eventually developed into waging war to forge empires and establish money and power for those who could take it. Today wars are waged for money and power, with almost no interest in gaining territory, invasions are almost nonexistent. Instead, civil wars and foreign intervention are where wars are fought.

Hopefully in the future, the closest thing we will have to wars will be violent uprisings and shifts in governments, instead of fully-fledged civil wars or invasions.

 

[Dr. Whiggs]

War never changes, only the way in which it is fought.

Yeah, the partial Fallout quote isn't winning you any intellectual points when the second half of your statement contradicts the first.

 

[Eumersian]

The fundamental concept of war has changed little:

You have a quarrel with some other kind of people. You kill them so they (the few survivors) know what's what. LET'S ROCK!

But war has changed much on the finer points. I could say that Hannibal's Campaign into Rome is significantly different than Operation Focus in the 1967 Six-Day War. I think I would be right. Technology is made to create more effective tactics and all that good stuff.

 

[Th37thTrump3t]

Well... Yes and no.

Technologically speaking, war has changed dramatically.

Ideologically, not a bit. War is war. The objective is still to kill the enemy.

 

[Death God]

War is war man. Same basic principal with slightly different methods: "Get your point across, kill all who threaten you or your cause, and win"

 

[KaosuHamoni]

War has and it hasn't. The technology used to kill the people over there has changed dramatically, and the stereotype has changed, but the actual core meaning of it is exactly the same and it's generally one of three things.

1. You have something I want, so I'm gonna kill you for it.
2. You haven't done what I want, so I'm gonna kill you for it.
3. You did something I didn't like, so I'm gonna kill you for it.

There is a kinda obvious correlation.

 

[NSGrendel]

 

[Azulito]

I think war has changed. It's hard to say though because there has been no recent 'superpower' conflicts aside from threats.

Since World War 2 and the Cold War, the world has grown closer with frequent travelling and expanding of enteprise. If something were to happen and say America went to war with Britain... I honestly cannot see people fighting eachother because we seem really closely bound, not in politics but it civilian views. In WW2, we barely knew eachother and now we're more diverse and have great knowledge about one another.

But with countries like China and Korea, it makes me feel like war will never change.

 

[mjc0961]

I don't know, okay? Ron Perlman says that war never changes, but Solid Snake insists that war has changed. I'm so confused!

 

[hittite]

Maybe you could ask the Polish Royal Cavalry if war has changed or not. Or possibly the 1st Panzer Division.

 

[deonte9109]

Spoiler: Both and neither.

War is war you have each side fighting the other either for God, gold, or glory. People still die widows and orphans are made. Old men either at the back of the field or back home still continue to make cold calculating decisions

However war has also changed. The easiest example is in America. Before modern combat and I mean pretty much WWII and earlier, citizens were usually told that the people we are fighting are either bad need to be put down, attacked us and so we must defend ourselves, or that in the ever growing conquest must continue to conquer more lands. However, these days with the media sensationalizing everything, war has become more and more an ideaological and containment centered. No longer do we have one common enemy but more so either a group or a group's ideas. In these past conflicts and I mean from Korean War to now when have we ever fought a war or conflict that was purely defensive. Then think when have we fought a war to prevent Communist takeover. Now think is there any specific country that we are fighting now go ahead Ill wait........There is none we are simply fighting to prevent other ideas from being spread so that ours can. And on top of all of this the US has been fully running a military industrial complex since Eisenhower which is more or less America is in the business of war. This might have been able to work in the 20th century but now that system cannot work and is one of the reasons that America is i the current situation that it is now.

 

[Umwerfer]

meleê weapons now have range. artillery have ridiculous range. Two wars from now, will be back to sticks and stones.

Wasn't common to have a war purely for the liberation of someone completely unrelated to you in the earlier days. That seems to be pretty common now

 

[ethaninja]

Both tactics and technology has changed. But the reasons war exists are the same. Except for oil. Or did we always need that?

 

[mythtech]

War has not changed fundamentaly from tibes beating each other with sticks, side A wants to kill/conqure side B who is also trying to kill/conqure side A.

What has changed is how people go about war. Obviously as technology has advanced so has warfare. Going back only as far as the american civil war (1860s) people went to spectate as each side moved on to the battle field, exchanged vollys and bayonet charged each other. Moving forward 40 or so years to 1905 and we see the begining of trench warfare that was to dominate ww1. This is again far removed from the blitzkrieg and bomber campains of ww2. Post ww2 with the nuclear bomb none of the main players in world politics were game to go to war with each other so they took the fight to places like korea. Vetnam saw the first lage scale telavised war which changed the way war was presented to the puplic. It also saw the begining of the type of war still conducted by the iraqies and afgans to day, guerrilla warfare against a vastly better reasorced coalition of super power.

War back before the 1900s between european powers was a civil afair both side took to the field and there was ussually an mutually aknowlaged victor at the end of the day. contrast this with the 'dirty' war of to day and war has deffinately changed in the weopons and tactics employed without the fundimentals of war having of changed since the first tribal allegences. Both arguments are equally justfied and to propperly argue one way or the other the question needs to be narrowed down a bit.

Have the basic principles of war changed? No

Has warfare evolved with the advancements of weopons? Yes