Understanding War

War is an uncompromising conflict of ideologies.

To think of it as simply defined by armed conflict, is dangerously misleading.

Armed conflict may be the pinnacle expression of the ideological conflict, but it is the existence of the conflict without any commitment to a tolerant compromise that defines the existence of war.

Therefore, ending armed conflict by itself is absolutely not an indicator of ending the war.

Wars have ended when the armed conflict ended because one entity had been so badly defeated that they chose to abandon the conflicting ideology; this is generally indicated by an unconditional surrender. This is total war.

But there is also armed conflict that has limited objectives of forcing an opposing ideology to compromise to some degree. This is limited war.

Again, the absence of armed conflict is not an indicator of a lack of war, whereas the existence of armed conflict is an indicator of war, although it might prove to be limited, not total.

Intolerant ideologies, most often derived from nationalities, race, or religious ideology, will inevitably lead to violence.