Quotes About Tactics

Sometimes a commander's decisions must be made without regard for how they will be perceived," Thrawn said. "What matters is that the commander does what is necessary for victory.

Besides, it is often wise to conceal one's full capabilities from potential enemies.

I had a plan, all right, ... I was also pretty sure no one on my list of allies was going to like it.

Uncertainties are often useful in paralyzing an opponent's plans and actions

The odds are never impossible," Thrawn said calmly. "Merely unfavorable.

A great tactician creates plans. A good tactician recognizes the soundness of a plan presented to him. A fair tactician must see the plan succeed before offering approval. Those

Thrawn's unique ability to read a species' deepest psychological core by studying its artwork was one of his greatest strengths, enabling him to anticipate his opponents' moves right down to their likely battlefield tactics. New allies seeing it demonstrated for first time inevitably reacted with surprise, awe, or disbelief.

Takes a pretty confident person to think he can beat modern turbolasers with blaster cannons, though. Thrawn shrugged. I could. Right, but you're on our side, Eli said drily.

On the contrary," Thrawn corrected coolly. "Not only will they fall for it, they'll be utterly destroyed by it. Watch, Captain. And learn.

Perhaps," Thrawn said. "Still, it would be wise to think on it, General.

The guys who play it [soccer] are kinda dumb. Why don't they just kick the crap out of the guy in front of the net? Then they could score all they want.

We wait. No sense spooking him. We let him come in nice and close while we do our famous imitation of a hole in the water

Panic is something that good operations officers plan for.

Diplomacy was like a card game. The difference was that you never really knew the value of the cards in your own hand.

and air power had never won a war.

level attacks. Their primary

Heavy enemy jamming activity to the west," the regimental commander announced. "Plan Three. Repeat: Plan Three.

It's a way to attack an enemy systematically—all over, all at the same time. And you can do real harm that way.

When the French high command had got wind of the German Schlieffen Plan prior to World War I, their reaction had been, "So much the better for us!" That assault had barely ground to a halt outside Paris. In 1940, the same high command had greeted initial news of another German attack with smiles—and that attack had ended at the Spanish border. The problem was that people tended to wed their ideas more faithfully than their spouses, and the tendency was universal. It

but the point of any deployment was not the movement and placement of forces, but the way the forces could be brought to bear against a potential enemy.

Cheating was a concept both foreign and integral to the fighting of wars.

Find the enemy. Don't let the enemy find you. Reconnaissance! Reconnaissance! Reconnaissance!

The poetics of politics had to be observed.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, thirty-fourth president of the United States, was the Supreme Allied Commander in World War II. He said this about logistics: "You will not find it difficult to prove that battles, campaigns, and even wars have been won or lost primarily because of logistics.