The Pleasure Principle - Wars for fun cannot be won -- Timothy Snyder

[erronis]

Last edited Sat Mar 28, 2026, 08:23 PM - Edit history (1)

https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-pleasure-principle

The attack on Iran is wrong in countless ways: morally, legally, politically. But set all of that aside momentarily and stay within the logic of war planning. The war cannot be won because it was the result of a whim, not a plan.

War planning follows a logic. Different traditions of strategists use different terms, but this flow is representative:

1 National interest, 2 policy, 3 strategy, 4 tactics, 5 operations, 6 capabilities.

A national interest would be the preservation or the security of a people or a state. A policy would be a general notion of how that is to be achieved in a particular part of the world. War, as Clausewitz says, is policy by other means. So sometimes policy leads to strategy, an overall plan for victory in war. A tactic is an element of a strategy, for example where and how and for what purposes forces are disposed. An operation is a specific action, for example on the battlefield. A capability is the combinations of humans, technique, and weapons necessary to achieve a specific desired effect in a specific setting.

. . .

Of course, war is a bloody, unpredictable mess. It is hard to tell what is actually happening, even for the participants. The enemy reacts in ways that are hard to foresee. Consequences spiral out quickly into the world and then back onto the battlefield. Leaders fail to understand what is going on. In the case of Donald Trump, they are shown two-minute sizzle reels of "stuff blowing up" rather than being briefed.

These six terms are abstractions, as is in some sense all military planning. These are not sufficient to win a war. But they, or something like them, are necessary. If there is no logic beginning with a national interest, a war cannot be won, because victory demands some an objective. We have none.

. . .

Trump's one consistent explanation is enjoyment. Trump felt good after kidnapping Maduro in Venezuela. He called into Fox and Friends to talk about how nice it would be to repeat the experience. He now says that the war in Iran is "fun." Hegseth uses similar terms.

This is the pleasure principle. If war feels good, do it. Trump and Hegseth take satisfaction in killing or dominating other people.

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