system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why do people have to send a message saying that they are going in war instead of just directly attacking?

Like the title suggest, why would a county declare an attack on a enemy instead of just going directly for an attack without letting the enemy know?

Wouldn't it give them more chance to win the war?
gpt
This might not directly answer what you are asking, but countries simply don't declare war anymore. There are definitely still many conflicts, but most involve "unofficial" organizations such as terrorist groups that don't require a formal declaration of war to attack. It is rare now to have one country directly invade another country, and if it does, there are usually loopholes that are exploited to "declare war" without actually declaring war. There's no real easily accessible "list" of declarations of war that I've found, but IIRC no war has been officially declared since the Six-Day War.