(T)here is one form of centralized government which is almost entirely unprogressive and beyond all other forms costly and tyrannical—the rule of an army....though education and culture may modify, they cannot change [its] predominant characteristics—a continual subordination of justice to expediency, an indifference to suffering, a disdain of ethical principles, a laxity of morals, and a complete ignorance of economics.

Winston Churchill, The River War