Clausewitz for Kids

[The Bread Guy]

I'm not making this up - put together by Caitlin Fitz Gerald (according to her Twitter profile:  "MA in IR. Into foreign policy, security, civ-mil, and Middle East studies. Writer. Volunteer. Artist. Boston sports fan. Yank Arsenal supporter. Grammar nerd.").  A bit of a taste:

.... Very few people could stay calm, seeing this for the first time - Badger, you can open your eyes now – You will grow used to it, so that you barely notice most of it, but danger does not mean only heroism and glory.

War is physically demanding. It will make you more tired than you’ve ever been. When people are tired, their minds fall under a cloud, and they have a hard time keeping up their efforts.

People also have a hard time keeping up their efforts when things are going very well, because they get complacent – overly satisfied with what they have achieved, Otter. A commander has to work very hard, too, and he gets very tired, too, but he must continue, and he must be strong enough to help all of his men continue, even if they are struggling with feelings of despair or of self-satisfaction.

A good commander will hear no complaining about how hard things are when his army is losing. This is the same as whining, and whining is unacceptable!

———

Intelligence is what you know about the enemy and about his country, however you might learn it.

A commander gets many, many reports, and a lot of them will say different things, more will be false – wrong – and most will be uncertain – you will not know whether they are right or not.

A commander must be confident enough to rely on his own judgment of what is most likely to be true, and confident enough to ignore many of the reports he gets.

———

When you have never been to war, it might look easy. The decisions might seem simple.

When you have been to war, you will know that a lot of little things will go wrong, or will be different from how you planned them, or how you thought they would be. You will be tired, you will be in danger, and your luck will change all the time. You must know friction to overcome it, to – yes, Otter? What is it?

-Sir, what does ‘friction’ mean?

It is when two things come together and make something stick, instead of flow smoothly. Like when you use the brakes on your bicycle, or there is a stone inside your shoe. Yes?

-Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir.

Remember this word. This word is important. Right. So…Yes! you must know friction to overcome it, and to plan for it ....

 

[Greymatters]

Intelligence is what you know about the enemy and about his country, however you might learn it.

A commander gets many, many reports, and a lot of them will say different things, more will be false – wrong – and most will be uncertain – you will not know whether they are right or not.

A commander must be confident enough to rely on his own judgment of what is most likely to be true, and confident enough to ignore many of the reports he gets.


Oversimplified, to the point of being wrong and misleading...

 

[Journeyman]

Oversimplified, to the point of being wrong and misleading...

You are free to believe that what it says about the current practice of Intelligence is wrong and misleading.

I assure you, however, that it's a very close, albeit simplified, version of what Clausewitz wrote -- which I gather, was the author's intent.

 

[TangoTwoBravo]

A commander must be confident enough to rely on his own judgment of what is most likely to be true, and confident enough to ignore many of the reports he gets.


Oversimplified, to the point of being wrong and misleading...

Is the commander relying on his own judgement the part that you don't like?

 

[Greymatters]

I dont disagree with a commander relying on their own judgement.  Its pretty much a requirement for any officer  or NCO of significant rank to be able to make the right decisions.  Especially back in the day of Napolean and even up to WW2 when a commander often had limited or no communications between units or with higher units and had to be able to make his own decision based on orders, last known information, and 'feel for the ground'.

However I disagree with the comment that, in this day and age, a commander should ignore many of the reports he gets, that most will be uncertain, or that a significant portion will be false.  If he/she has competent operations and intelligence staff, they will filter out what is false or incorrect, and be able to provide him with timely and accurate information about what is known. 

Most important, a commander should never eliminate information or consider it false just because it contradicts their personal opinion or belief of what is going on.  In areas where nothing is known, or nothing can be confirmed, then the commander must rely on his/her personally acquired experience, knowledge and instincts. 

... Damn, having written it out, this sounds very similiar to what was previously written.  Perhaps I just dislike what it implied?

 

[Infanteer]

Well, it's you against Carl.  I'd say you've got some ground to make up.

 

[a_majoor]

Well, it's you against Carl.  I'd say you've got some ground to make up.

op:

 

[lethalLemon]

Hmm... interesting.

I still prefer the original simply for it's feel when reading, but this would be useful for academic studies/research etc as it is simplified and easy to read.

I'm in the process of reading War and Peace... Once finished, everything should be easier to read - haha.