Well, then, in the spirit of not making the perfect we cannot achieve an enemy to the good we can, what might we do?
Africa Command's official investigation, however, concluded that the "direct cause of the enemy attack in Tongo Tongo is that the enemy achieved tactical surprise there, and our forces were outnumbered approximately three to one," according to AFRICOM's former chief of staff, and now the head of the U.S. Army in Africa, Maj.
His interviewees had been first-hand witnesses to the fact that military gains of that magnitude are never achieved without huge enemy fatalities, combatants and non-combatants, and the speed of this victory intensified the carnage and chaos.
"I wanted to write something which would be inspiring for the future, to show what potentially could be achieved if two enemies can eschew bitterness and sit across a table from each other".
Victory in battle is achieved by causing every enemy unit to rout, or by annihilating the opposing army.
After that, the monotheism of Islam remained unwavering and strong, through persecution, exile, and war, and before long the Prophet had achieved victory over his enemies and the new faith spread like a conquering fire across the world.
In its make-believe world peace and rapprochement between long-time enemies is achieved not through the extension of an olive branch or even the application of political pressure, but rather a CIA assassination, which somehow melts away years of animosity between the US and Iran and transforms the Middle East.
Secure from interior enemies, Rome achieved great territorial gains in both the East and the West.
"And going against soft targets is probably an easier way to achieve what the enemy is trying to achieve".
Another military historian, Gary Sheffield, says that "most modern scholarship" agrees that Britain's war aims in 1914 were the same as in 1939: "to prevent an authoritarian, militarist, expansionist enemy achieving hegemony in Europe … If the allies had lost", he says, "it would have meant the end of liberal democracy on mainland Europe".
In war, the task facing an army is to mobilize, engage the enemy, achieve victory and then depart.
