The Protracted Conflict

I have long believed that political and strategic issues are essentially simple; not easy, but simple. I mean “simple” here in a logical rather than psychological sense. It may take painful psychological effort to work through to the logically simple core.

The great political and military leaders, as I read their careers, have grasped the simple core, and guided their conduct accordingly. Carthage must be destroyed. Napoleon will fail in the end if we keep command of the seas and strangle French commerce. The South must be split along the line of the Mississippi.