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By Mark Stout<\/em><\/p>\n Carl von Clausewitz offered his \u201cparadoxical trinity\u201d as a tool for thinking about wars and their various manifestations. His trinity was:<\/p>\n Composed of primordial violence, hatred, and enmity, which are to be regarded as a blind natural force; of the play of chance and probability within which the creative spirit is free to roam; and of its element of subordination, as an instrument of policy, which makes it subject to reason alone.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n As a practical matter the United States and the West today pay little attention to the first component of this trinity. True, some analysts are willing to see \u201cprimordial violence, hatred, and enmity\u201d playing a role in the behavior of some of our enemies \u2014 the Islamic State and al Qaeda, for instance. However, when it comes to looking at our own forces and operations, we like to imagine that \u201cprimordial\u201d violence plays no role because our violence is calibrated and precise, hatred is tantamount to racism, and enmity is merely a matter of politics because all people are fundamentally the same.<\/p>\n One American defense analyst wrote in 2006<\/a>, for instance, that:<\/p>\n Combatants are trained in the skill to kill and the will to kill, but discouraged against the thrill to kill. \u2026 The will to kill involves those psychological preparations that respect human life, but that in war focus on survival and self-preservation. The thrill to kill, however, is psychotic. It\u2019s rejected by war, but embraced by terrorism. The thrill to kill represents the cowardly insanity of terrorism and hate<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n This sort of opinion is a relatively new phenomenon, however. Consider this 1943 U.S. Army document<\/a> brought to my attention by my colleague Dr. Kevin Woods. It was written by Pvt. Frank Sargent of the 34th<\/sup> Infantry Division and came to the attention of his division commander, who liked it so much that he sent it up the chain. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower liked it so much that he had it published for the U.S. forces under his command in North Africa. When Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall saw it, he \u201cordered it distributed to the Army at large.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
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