To Secure Peace Is To Prepare For

The World Has A Way Of Undermining Complex Plans. This Is Particularly True In Fast Moving Environments. A Fast Moving Environment Can Evolve More Quickly Than A Complex Plan Can Be Adapted To It. By The Time You Have Adapted, The Target Has Changed.

Although Our Intellect Always Longs For Clarity And Certainty, Our Nature Often Finds Uncertainty Fascinating.

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.

Only Great And General Battles Can Produce Great Results

Surprise Becomes Effective When We Suddenly Face The Enemy At One Point With Far More Troops Than He Expected. This Type Of Numerical Superiority Is Quite Distinct From Numerical Superiority In General: It Is The Most Powerful Medium In The Art Of War.