Clausewitz's Statement of War

My group read section 23 and we said:
War is always a serious means for a serious object.

War is not simply a series of mines going off, but it is a series of pulses of violence whose consequences we cannot necessarily have full control of. Although war is often motivated by a political cause, the aim of the original policy may become lost in the process of winning the war.

Clausewitz boils war down to a very simplistic definition that somewhat contradicts his later statement of it being a political cause. He says, "War is nothing but a duel on an extensive scale." He goes on to say that war is an act of violence to compel our opponent to fulfill our will. The manner in which Clausewitz defines war makes it seem so basic and humanistic. This human like aspect of war is something we tend to forget when our nation is at war. We tend to see it more as an animistic thing that is eating away at our nation, but like Clausewitz reminds us, our fellow civilians are fighting for political causes that involve our nation and affect us in some fashion. Clausewitz argues that war is both simplistic in nature, but complex once battle begins and control and motives are lost due to lust for violence and pure desire to win.