Field M Saxe Quotes
Very few men occupy themselves with the higher problems of war...when they arrive at the command of armies they are totally ignorant, and, in default of knowing what should be done, they do what they know.
Field Marshall Saxe, French General, Quoted in Thomas E. Ricks, Fiasco- The American Military Adventure in Iraq
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Ikle wrote this over a decade before both the military and civilian leaders fell into this trap in the 1994 Iraq War.
1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley. Though members of the same Conservative Party, Churchill was a major opponent of Baldwin’s peace and “appeasement” efforts and publicly castigated Prime Minister Baldwin. Yet Baldwin, if he could not stave off war, wanted his critic to serve as Prime Minister if war was inevitable. Churchill never had much respect for Baldwin. See {626930}.
The General refused. He had already achieved a strategic victory and it was only a matter of time when the Dutch would withdraw on their own as their supply lines were cut off and the populations wanted them out.
Not understanding this point has been the cause of much difficulty for military leaders from the war of 1812 through the Iraq war, the success or failure of the effort depended on a successful peace.
See a similar sentiment by Tallyrand
He polished the army but had little strategic appreciation for the strengths of the Union, its industrial capability, logistical capability, and its greater manpower pool. He was reluctant to fight, and when he did, was happy to take territory, that meant little, when Lincoln and other strategists argued that the object should be to destroy and degrade the Confederate Army and the Confederate capacity to support the Army and continue to make war.
The War Plan that the Germans had developed--{642092}—had gone awry at the battle of the Marne in late 1914.
