War & Peace Quote by Jalal Talabani

A coup is often sold as pure logistics: seize the radio stations, arrest the ministers, control the streets. Talabani punctures that fantasy. He frames a military takeover as something closer to a blood oath, requiring sacrifice and a particular kind of courage - the willingness to gamble your life, your unit, and your future on the belief that history will reward you. That’s not a trait you can simply order into existence. It’s morale: the invisible fuel that turns disciplined men into political actors.

The line carries the hard-earned skepticism of someone who lived through the Middle East’s long 20th century of strongmen, palace intrigues, and armies that doubled as parties. Talabani, a Kurdish leader who spent decades navigating Baghdad’s shifting power centers, understands that uniforms don’t automatically confer loyalty. Armies fracture along sect, region, patronage, and humiliation. When that internal story collapses - when soldiers stop believing they’re defending a nation, a cause, or even each other - the institution becomes good at surviving, not seizing.

Subtextually, Talabani is warning both sides. To would-be plotters: hardware and rank won’t substitute for conviction; the first real resistance will expose the hollowness. To civilian rulers: legitimacy isn’t a moral accessory; it’s a security asset. A demoralized army might obey today, but it won’t risk everything tomorrow. In that sense, he’s redefining coups not as sudden shocks, but as morale failures that have already happened in slow motion.