Conflict Strategy Quotes

No one starts a war—or rather, no one in his senses ought to do so—without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by that war, and how he intends to conduct it.

When your enemies are fighting one another, don’t support one or the other. Weaken both.

We not ought to fight them at all, unless we are determined to fight them forever.

How does it make sense to remove an option, to tell your enemy before you go into a conflict, that you will not exercise whatever options are necessary in order to achieve victory?

Never take advice from anyone in a tie. They'll bankrupt you. Don't ask a general for advice on war, and don't ask a broker for advice on money.

Divide and conquer. Get your adversaries fighting among themselves

Some of the American military obviously were thinking in terms of fighting a nuclear war. I was opposed to that.

... the Indians must think there can be no union in our Councils, when it has been known more than once, that the Six Nations have been invited to a conference by different colonies at the same time. This looks among the Indians, as tho' our Measures were not mutual, and occasions them to be divided in their Councils also, being doubtful of our acting with vigor and unanimity etc. against the French

In a war the last thing the English know is how to practice fair play.

You have to give the press confrontations. When you give them confrontations, you get attention; when you get attention, you can educate.

Know your enemy - and learn about his favorite sport.

Like a good general, I treated everyone who wasn't with me as against me.

I've made this statement many times: If I would have to do it over again, I would have made known the forthcoming Tet Offensive.

And finally, and most importantly, the next time we go to war, don't give a specific reason for the war that the left can seize upon and later flog us with it ad nauseam, just do it. Remember, the first rule of Fight Club is that you don't talk about Fight Club.

We must know more about our adversaries than they know about us.

A political war can be fought from anywhere.

I can sell a fight, make no mistake.

When we separated, I did not want to get in a slugfest. I had to take the high ground.

In almost any situation, it is far more devastating to keep your icy cool while the other person gets herself in a flush-cheeked, teary-eyed hot mess yelling in your face.

We cannot afford methods less ruthless than those of our opposition.

After all, if you make your enemy look like a fool, you lose the justification for engaging him.

There was no doubt that sooner or later we will fight. But we will fight not in the way of the dissidents' protests. We understood that we needed to be as professional as possible.

The information weapon, of course, is used in critical moments, and war is always a critical moment.

I don't really pick my opponents.

Inside the White House there were always extreme amounts of doubt about whether they should be escalating in Afghanistan. In fact, most of the president's advisers said, "This is probably not going to work." A lot of people in the military said, "This is probably not going to work." If the thumbnail version of the Iraq war was that George W.Bush lied about mass destruction weapons, the thumbnail version of Barack Obama's war in Afghanistan is that the generals pushed him into a war he didn't want to fight.