It’s been a while since I talked solely about war and warfare, so here we go. In my first book, Praxis Tacticum: The Art, Science and Practice of Military Tactics, I discussed some commonly held myths regarding war and warfare. I will not reiterate them in full but since I wrote that book, I have found some more. Here they are.

Myth 1: The nature of war has changed. Wrong. The nature of war, or at least what we understand of it, is immutable. What changes is the nature of warfare or how we fight. Otherwise stated: The nature of war never changes; the character of war changes constantly.

Myth 2: Technology drives change in war. This chicken-and-egg relationship drives one of the oldest ongoing debates in this field of study. Technology is the servant of ideas: ideas create concepts, concepts create intellectual structures, and intellectual structures drive technological change. First person view (FPV) drones, for instance, existed long before they were used in war. See Not Dead: A Case for Tanks in the Modern Battlespace.

Myth 3: There’s a Revolution in Military Affairs. Such was the cry heard in professional journals all through the 1980s and 1990s and it’s an idea that is inextricably tied to the technology issues above and below. We are beginning to hear it again because of drone warfare. It was wrong then and it’s wrong now. Just because it seems like a revolutionary change to you, does not make it so.

Myth 4: Technology will lift “the fog of war”. The term “fog of war” is often attributed to Carl von Clausewitz, but is actually a paraphrase of what he said: “War is the realm of uncertainty; three quarters of the factors on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty.” Some societies, like the United States, have shown a near-religious faith in the ability of technology to unmask the hidden nature of war. We know a lot more than we used to but Clausewitz’s claim above remains true.

Myth 5: The modern battlespace is more lethal than ever before. The opposite is true: A short internet search of casualties during past wars quickly dispels this myth. Even the murderous attrition rates among Russian soldiers in Ukraine do not come close to what happened during the Thirty Years’ War, the US Civil War or World War I and II.

Myth 6: The modern battlespace is more crowded than ever before. Once again, the opposite is true. Mechanization and technology allows more combat power to be generated with fewer troops per square kilometer.

Retired US Chief of the Joint Chiefs, General Mark Milley, a highly decorated and well-educated officer, used to tell his subordinates that there were four widely held but dangerous misconceptions about modern war. Both experience and study had taught him how important it is that these myths be debunked.

Myth 7: Wars will be short. Milley asserts that “Wars are funny things. They have a logic of their own. And they rarely conform to planned timelines.” The American Civil War, World War I, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and the “ten day special military operation” all went long.—wars inevitably last longer than initially expected.

Myth 8: Wars can be won from afar using technology. Despite advances in precision weapons and standoff capabilities, you need infantry on the ground. Milley references Iwo Jima, where 66 days of heavy bombardment failed to eliminate enemy resistance, proving that “imposing your political will on the enemy typically requires you, at the end of the day, to close with and destroy that enemy up close with ground forces.”

Myth 9: Special Operations Forces (SOF) can win wars alone. While praising SOF, Milley stresses they’re “not designed to win wars” — only to conduct raids, train allies, and target high-value individuals. Victory in war requires a full national effort.

Myth 10: Militaries do not fight wars. As the dean of British military historians, Sir Michael Howard, famously said, “Societies fight wars.” War is an extension of policy and policy is the domain of government.