February 24th, 2022, was something of a landmark date in the history of mankind: the day Russia officially invaded Ukraine (or rather: began conducting a special military operation, depending on your viewpoint). Now, 166 days later, on November 16th, there are reports of two men killed in Poland as a result of a missile landing there, allegedly launched from an S-300 (a Russian made missile system, also used by the Ukrainian military). At first the President of Poland initially blamed Russia. Then, after NATO had words, the chances (allegedly) are that it may have come from a Ukrainian missle launcher.
NATO have had to play a very fine balancing act. On the one hand: how to avoid an escalation of the conflict and avert a third world war, which could only end in mutually assured destruction. On the other hand: how far can Russia (or China, or North Korea) push it before they can expect reprisals, and not just economic.
I used to be a dove, and in my heart of hearts I should still be. Then I grew up. The world isn't some happy free loving place where nothing ever goes wrong, everyone is extremely nice and kind to one another all the time, and everything is free (Rainbowland). Now, even if Rainbowland is a preferable place, an ideal worth striving towards: Snuggle Nook, it is not actually the world we live in. We live on Earth, not in Rainbowland.
As a classicist, I tend to look through the lens of and learn the lessons of, the ancient authors: the old philosophers. Where Isocrates wanted peace, Demosthenes willed war. Yet these were orators, statesmen, Demosthenes was like an Attic Cicero. Notwithstanding the curiously intruiging tractes of Plato, Aristotle and Hermes Trismegistus, most of history, the writings of ancient times, are all about one thing: war. It is not always war. Sometimes treaties are made, hostages exchanged in good faith, peace is made. There are moments of peace in history, such as Sulla pacifying pirates in the Med' (according to Velleius Paterculus). They exist, but they are the exception, not the norm.
Equally, as a curiosity, there are only two proper extant works on the subject of war, which are extant in Latin. Both are (relatively) late. One is by Sextus Julius Frontinus (1st century of the Christian Era), and even that is simply a drawing together of anecdotes about war. His book The Art of War does not survive. The second is a 4th century author Vegetius, and his De Rerum Militari ('On Military Matters'). Even so, in the writings of Livy, Polybius, Tacitus, Plutarch, Josephus and Cassius Dio we get several windows or 'snapshots' of what it was like to be a soldier, back in the day.
There are a couple of other nice writings, beyond ancient Greece and Rome, from the ancient world, notably Sun Tzu's classic little exposé of war. I even quite enjoy Clausewitz. Anyway.
These aren't the days of Homer in the 8th century Before the Christian Era. As I have learnt from my studying public law, there are such considerations as international law and conventions, such as human rights law, war crimes, and atrocities. Frontinus, nor Sun Tzu, nor even Vegetius, had any such things in mind. A friend of mine (not a well read man) spoke to me of Machiavelli recently. If anything, this later author of real-politic(s), had a more enlightened and somewhat more honourable view, not quite so ruthless as our ancient forebears. Machiavelli - if one has not read him - is a stereotype. Yet compared to the old-school war mongers, like Sun Tzu, Frontinus or Vegetius, Machiavelli is pretty tame compared to the ruthless pragmatism shown by the old-school war mongers. Ghengis Khan style: pepper on the gloves, no pulling punches. Anyway, these are just my ramblings for the day.
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