What is the first and foremost objective of war?

Kill the enemy before he kills you.

Before war is waged against another country, a political objective must first be established. This will serve as the goal. the accomplishment of which will be the determining factor whether the said war is won or lost. Such political objectives as an example considering recent history or even ancient history are liberation from tyranny and oppression and moves towards independence.

Hey Irish,

I have to agree with the person who said the purpose is to make money.

In my opinion, the main motivation for war is and always has been, about the making of war profits by a select few at the expense of others.

Like it has always been, war is still about booty.

Off course to wage a war, the first thing you have to do is convince a bunch of people to finance a war, that is, by hook or crook (as is said) you have to raise up a political following. To do that you have to sound convincing and distribute the idea of war in a palatable way, through both private and public communication avenues... we all know how "private" communication works...in our age "public" communication is through the mass media. A good way to get the money is to privately convince your rich friends that they will make money on the war, and to get soldiers & more money from the public at large you have to convince everyone else that they should be afraid of the enemy for some "good" reason or other, the more "high" sounding the reason the better. "Fear" quickly gets the general population under control and believing in the rightness of their government to wage war in their behalf. ...Then bag-boom the war-profiteers are in the money now!

~Savvy-ma

Well the main reason that The United States of America makes war is to protect it's vital interests around the globe to ensure that we dominate the world economy for as long as possible. Vital interests would also include middle eastern oil reserves.

To answer your question: The first and foremost objective in war is to overwhelm, dominate and in other words crush the enemies ability to continue fighting therein bringing about a quick victory (surrender or armistice). The 1940 German Blitzkrieg of the Low-Countries (Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg) and France are an excellent example.

Divide the people. Get them to fight amongst themselves. Let them destroy their own strong points, and then conquer.

Divide and conquer, oldest rule in the book.

Also, know your enemy better then you know yourself. If you know how your enemy is predisposed to think and act, then you can win a large part of war through propaganda.

Double think. Get them to give up their freedom through fear of an enemy combatant that may or may not even exist. Offer protection for the surrender of their liberties.

It's going on in America right now, our own government is waging war on the people and the people don't even know it.

Keep the population ignorant and dumbed down so they stop asking questions and suspend critical thinking.

This could get very long and very ugly so I'll stop now.

To render your enemy unable to make war on you.

Be it for a territorial goal, a monetary one, or a philosophical one; a war is meant to end a threat to your way of life or to your desire to live as you wish.

That's how I see it.

Re. Your hint- Kill their leader. No head; no snake.

O.K. re, your 2nd hint- Cut off his resupply and keep the best defensible land for yourself. You need big advantage in numbers for this. If I'm wrong this time, I give up.

Interesting question.

To defeat the enemy by any means necessary. Killing, destroying their war making abilities, (Industrial as well as agricultural).

Most replies are confusing objectives with methods. The objective is to bend your opponent to your will.

Peace ...

To get the other country to do what you wanted them to do in the first place.

Profits for the military-industrial complex.

Make it illegal to profit from war and watch how fast peace breaks out.

Win - nothing in second place