let george say it

                                                                         

The war, therefore if we judge it by the standards of previous wars, is merely an imposture. It is like the battles between certain ruminant animals whose horns are incapable of hurting one another. But though it is unreal it is not meaningless. It eats up the surplus of consumable goods, and it helps to preserve the special mental atmosphere that the hierarchical society needs. War, it will be seen, is now a purely internal affair. In the past, the ruling groups of all countries, although they might recognize their common interest and therefore limit the destructiveness of war, did fight against one another, and the victor always plundered the vanquished. In our own day they are not fighting against one another at all. The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact. The very word "war," therefore, has become misleading. It would probably be accurate to say that by becoming continuous, war ceased to exist. WAR IS PEACE.

George Orwell. "The Theory & Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism," by Emmanuel Goldstein, the book within the book  "1984." Goldstein-Trotsky is the Great Traitor who split from Big Brother-Stalin, & is the perpetual subject of the two-minutes hate.

Pictured: Goldstein