In fact, contrary to the optimistic claims of “democratic pacifists,” implicating the lives of the population in war decisions was far from an adequate guarantee that military butcheries would be prevented. But even if it failed to rule out catastrophes, its effects were by no means minimal. The state's dependence on the bodies of the lower classes to wage war was also one of the factors that made it possible for those classes to establish a durable bargaining power. The social state was in part a product of the world wars, the price paid for the cannon fodder, compensation for the blood tax levied by the struggle.

Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, loc. 601