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The will to fight is also a finite resource in war. There was also no material way that North Vietnam or the Taliban could prevail in a straight up fight; the s
by philwelch 3y ago
The will to fight is also a finite resource in war. There was also no material way that North Vietnam or the Taliban could prevail in a straight up fight; the strategy in all these cases was to inflict enough death and destruction that the United States would give up and sue for peace.
- giraffe_lady 3y agoIsn't that fairly contemporary theory though? Is there any historical record of confederate leadership using that language or applying those concepts? I'm sure someone over there had read clausewitz but I've never heard of this stuff being applied by any american military before like maaaybe ww1, a little bit.
- philwelch 3y agoI am using more contemporary theoretical terminology, but I think the basic idea of “make the Yankees bleed until they leave us alone” was within the grasp of the rebels. A lot of warfighting theory is an attempt to formalize strategic thinking that has always been with us, sort of like how stories have followed the Hero’s Journey pattern for centuries before Campbell formalized it.