I once talked to a retired general who had been in Afganistan. In his view the purpose of a military is to reach a truce. Once you have a truce, politicians hav

I once talked to a retired general who had been in Afganistan. In his view the purpose of a military is to reach a truce. Once you have a truce, politicians have the job to reach peace. Breaking things and harming people might sometimes be the most efficient way to reach a truce, but if it is not then a good military will avoid it. This view might be a german peculiarity though. After WW2 they had to distinguish the new "Bundeswehr" from the previous Nazi "Reichswehr". They developed the concept of "Staatsbürger in Uniform" [0] (citizen in uniform). [0] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staatsb%C3%BCrger_in_Uniform https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staatsb%C3%BCrger_in_Uniform