Strategic Failure Quotes

We have sustained a defeat without a war.

I thought the Vietnam war was an utter, unmitigated disaster, so it was very hard for me to say anything good about it.

He who strikes first admits that his ideas have given out.

Military men predominated and gave no thought to the larger situation. They knew how to advance but not how to retreat.

The Agency became so wrapped up in the military operation that it failed to appraise the chances of success realistically. Furthermore, it failed to keep the national policymakers adequately and realistically informed of the conditions considered essential for success.

It’s going to prove to be one of the greatest blunders any American President has ever made.

By the time Napoleon abandoned his army to its fate in Poland - arriving back in Paris on 5 December - it numbered fewer than 10,000 effectives. It was a disaster from which he would never recover.

Remember that you are more likely to die because you execute badly than get crushed by a competitor.

Like the attack on Pearl Harbor, another hinge event in American history, 9/11 was a great tactical victory for America's enemies. But in both these cases, the tactical success of the attacks was not matched by strategic victories. Quite the reverse.

When your weapons are dulled and ardour damped, your strength exhausted and treasure spent, neighboring rulers will take advantage of your distress to act. And even though you have wise counsellors, none will be able to lay good plans for the future. Thus, while we have heard of blundering swiftness in war, we have not yet seen a clever operation that was prolonged.

Strategic plans cause more dumb decisions than anything else in America.

We have zero strategic thinking out of our White House. And we have a national security structure that has lost its way when it comes to strategic thinking and strategic decision-making.

In the Bay of Pigs, President Kennedy learned that the Generals are not always right.

I said I would remove him [Gen. George McClellan] if he let Lee's army get away from him and I must do so. He has got the slows.

ABOYNE (vb.) To beat an expert at a game of skill by playing so appallingly that none of his clever tactics or strategies are of any use to him.

In war, when a commander becomes so bereft of reason and perspective that he fails to understand the dependence of arms on Divine guidance, he no longer deserves victory.

The only difficulty I had in declaring war arose from the incompetency of the men to whom the principle management of it was to be given.

Since the Pentagon underestimated the number of troops required after the end of hostilities, we were not prepared to prevent looting or to guard hundreds of weapons dumps spread throughout the country.

One can't doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed - different plans have to be made. And the kernel here is the acknowledgement of defeat.

The wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong enemy.

And the west, encumbered by crippling alliances, and hardened with a morality too rigid to accommodate itself to the swing of events, must ..... eventually ..... fall.

Russia is an interesting place because they're extremely evil but they're not that good at implementing their evil.

This is not a strategy. It’s a ping pong game with American lives.

We could do good things in Afghanistan for the next 100 years and fail.

Stupidity trumps Machiavelli almost every time when you are looking for an explanation.