The nationalist and imperialist cliques of all nations endorse it. It is,
one could almost fear, for something like this that the peoples are being
kept at war, and the very existence of civilization jeopardized.

Now, whether anything of this kind really can be achieved by the war,
whether there is the least probability that either group of Powers can
win such a victory as would make the programme on either side a reality,
I will not here discuss. The reader will have his own opinion. What I am
concerned with is the effect any such solution would have upon the future
of Europe. Those who desire such a close may be divided into two classes.
The one frankly believes in war, in domination, and in power. It accepts
as inevitable, and welcomes as desirable, the perpetual armed conflict of
nations for territory and trade. It does not believe in, and it does not
want, a durable peace. It holds that all peace is, must be, and ought to
be, a precarious and regrettable interval between wars. I do not discuss
this view. Those who hold it are not accessible to argument, and can only
be met by action. There are others, however, who do think war an evil, who
do want a durable peace, but who genuinely believe that the way indicated
is the best way to achieve it. With them it is permitted to discuss, and it
should be possible to do so without bitterness or rage on either side. For
as to the end, there is agreement; the difference of opinion is as to the
means. The position taken is this: The enemy deliberately made this war of
aggression against us, without provocation, in order to destroy us. If it
had not been for this wickedness there would have been no war. The enemy,
therefore, must be punished; and his punishment must make him permanently
impotent to repeat the offence. That having been done, Europe will have
durable peace, for there will be no one left able to break it who will
also want to break it. Now, I believe all this to be demonstrably a
miscalculation. It is contradicted both by our knowledge of the way
human nature works and by the evidence of history. In the first place,
wars do not arise because only one nation or group of nations is wicked,
the others being good. For the actual outbreak of this war, I believe, as
I have already said, that a few powerful individuals in Austria and in
Germany were responsible. But the ultimate causes of war lie much deeper.
In them all States are implicated. And the punishment, or even