When war is continuous there is no such thing as military neccessity. Technical progress can cease and the most palpable facts can be denied or disregarded.
…
[The war] helps to preserve the special mental atmosphere that a hierarchical society needs. … In our own day they are not fighting against on another at all. The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects and the object of war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact. The very word ‘war’, therefore, has become misleading. It would be probably be accurate to say that by becoming continuous war has ceased to exist.

-“He knew in advance what O’Brian would say. That the party did not seek power for its own ends, but only for the good of the majority. That it sought power because men in the mass were frail, cowardly creatures who could not endure liberty or face the truth, and must be ruled over and systematically deceived by others who were stronger then themselves. That the choice for mankind lay between freedom and happiness, and that, for the great bulk of mankind, happiness was better.[…]”
-“That was stupid, Winston. … The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power…. We are different from all oligarchies in the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselvess, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives.”…