Knowing Is Different From Doing

Every Combat Is The Bloody And Destructive Measuring Of The Strength Of Forces, Physical And Moral; Whoever At The Close Has The Greatest Amount Of Both Left Is The Conqueror.

It Is Paltry Philosophy If In The Old-fashioned Way One Lays Down Rules And Principles In Total Disregard Of Moral Values . As Soon As These Appear One Regards Them As Exceptions, Which Gives Them A Certain Scientific Status, And Thus Makes Them Into Rules. Or Again One May Appeal To Genius , Which Is Above All Rules; Which Amounts To Admitting That Rules Are Not Only Made For Idiots , But Are Idiotic In Themselves.

If We Consider The Actual Basis Of This Information [i.e., Intelligence], How Unreliable And Transient It Is, We Soon Realize That War Is A Flimsy Structure That Can Easily Collapse And Bury Us In Its Ruins. ... Many Intelligence Reports In War Are Contradictory; Even More Are False, And Most Are Uncertain. This Is True Of All Intelligence But Even More So In The Heat Of Battle, Where Such Reports Tend To Contradict And Cancel Each Other Out. In Short, Most Intelligence Is False, And The Effect Of Fear Is To Multiply Lies And Inaccuracies.

In Short, Absolute, So-called Mathematical, Factors Never Find A Firm Basis In Military Calculations. From The Very Start, There Is An Interplay Of Possibilities, Probabilities, Good Luck And Bad, That Weaves Its Way Throughout The Length And Breadth Of The Tapestry. In The Whole Range Of Human Activities, War Most Closely Resembles A Game Of Cards.

There Are Times When The Utmost Daring Is The Height Of Wisdom.