The Best Strategy Is Always To Be

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.

War Is Merely A Continuation Of Politics.

Whenever Armed Forces . . . Are Used, The Idea Of Combat Must Be Present. . . . The End For Which A Soldier Is Recruited, Clothed, Armed, And Trained, The Whole Object Of His Sleeping, Eating, Drinking, And Marching Is Simply That He Should Fight At The Right Place And The Right Time.

Lastly, The Great Uncertainty Of All Data In War Is A Peculiar Difficulty, Because All Action Must, To A Certain Extent, Be Planned In A Mere Twilight, Which In Addition Not Unfrequently — Like The Effect Of A Fog Or Moonshine — Gives To Things Exaggerated Dimensions And An Unnatural Appearance.

Criticism Exists Only To Recognize The Truth, Not To Act As Judge.