LOL. I suppose the people of India following that Mahatma Gandhi fellow were powerless against violence? How about civil rights or women's rights, the government sure crushed those crazy protesters right? I suppose you believe the ideas and violence of the USA government stamped out alcohol consumption during Prohibition? Ideas and violence working together sure kept those states from legalizing marijuana use, didn't it?

Arrogantly stating an demonstrably incorrect opinion such as "Ideas, although they are powerful, always lose in the end to violence AND ideas," doesn't make it what you say a fact, it just makes you look clueless. You fail to realize that in order for those tanks and planes to run, people have to agree with your ideas. People have to operate them, they have to make the parts for them, produce and sell the fuel for them. Even drones are controlled by someone at a desk somewhere. You assume the foundations of the state's power that has allowed them to accumulate weapons of war are permanent and will never change. Ideas don't always win against violence, but they don't always lose either. That is because ideas don't have to defeat tanks or planes, they just have to convince the individuals who build, fuel, maintain, and operate the tanks and planes. And those individuals increasingly hate people who claim they are working for the "greater good".