Why did Moroni want to disarm the enemy?

Thomas R. Valletta

Citing the Prussian military authority Karl von Clausewitz, Hugh Nibley wrote: “‘The disarming of the enemy—this object of war in the abstract, [is the] final means of attaining the political object.’ In the Book of Mormon, Moroni often requires the enemy to lay down their arms and lets them go home. There are no reprisals or anything similar (see Alma 44:6, 15, 20; 52:37). The test comes when they lay down their arms—then they know your will has dominated over theirs. So Clausewitz says, the ‘disarming of the enemy—this [is the] object of war’ [War, Politics, and Power, 91]. Moroni was satisfied when the enemy laid down their arms” (Nibley, “Warfare and the Book of Mormon,” 129).

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