Things that you have learned from history

[Gleemonex]

Treating the defeated well defeats the entire purpose of war, which is to impose your conditions on your enemy. How would you expect USSR to treat Germany after Germany killed roughly 3,000,000 soldiers and about 15,000,000 - 20,000,000 civilians? Or if you are France after WWI who bled all of those years of war just to get those two territories, Alsace and Lorraine? The whole point of war is to gain something or to pacify your enemy, even if you were fighting a defensive war. Machiavelli is right, but he's what I call "No Duh!" right, meaning that he is pretty much stating the obvious, not to mention that the obvious he stated is unachievable and illogical (in the sense that you don't fight a war and then treat the vanquished enemy well). Then again, I seriously doubt that Machiavelli was actually advocating the good treatment of enemies. He was just warning the reader of the results of war.

I agree totally, the only reason for a war is a difference of opinion, usually because one side wants something that the others have, and the others won't give it up. In other words, in order to resolve the conflict in your favour, you have to disregard the opposing sides wishes. Therefore, how can you treat them that well? Machiavelli is sneaky like that, it may be the perfect solution on the surface, but in reality, it is entirely unattainable.

I disagree as much as you agree. I won't go on and on, because it's a pretty deep subject and you both seem like fairly bright guys, so I'll just provide some quick counter-examples: Post-WWII Axis (especially Japan). Japanese-occupied Taiwan. Any popular coup.

It all comes down to the fact that the leaders and the people don't always want the same thing.

-Glee