Part II.—The War.
CHAPTER I.
Our Political Mistakes.
The war was inaugurated in such difficult circumstances that it was not permissible to commit any further mistakes. Absolute supremacy in military and political leadership alone could have ensured satisfactory results for us. Unfortunately, however, our diplomacy failed us during the war. Nothing damaged the Central Powers so much as the invasion of weak and neutral Belgium, although there are sufficient precedents. As a rule, the belligerent parties disregard international law during war. There is no nation which has never done so, and there is no war in which international law has not been violated. No international principle which endangers success is ever respected in war, for the following reasons. To begin with, international law is a lex imperfecta, and there is no court which is in a position to pronounce judgment in such a case, and there is no power in a position to enforce the adhesion to the rules of international law, because the existence of the state is in question. Moreover, the state is the highest judge of
