From: Felix Ungman (felix@hu.se)
Date: Wed Jun 13 2001 - 04:14:33 MDT
On tisdag 12 juni 2001 19.33, Anders Sandberg <asa@nada.kth.se> wrote:
>Clausewitz concept is based on seeing military power as the ability to do
>work fast, a fairly good analogy. But while mechanical force is involved in
>warfighting, nobody would claim an army would be twice as powerful because
>their guns had twice the wattage of the opponent. Personally I am much more
>of a Sun Tzu person - it is information and application of it that really
>matters. You need the ability to carry out your plans, but a good general can
>do so with a minimum expenditure of physical energy or other
>valuables.
Sun Tzu writes:
"It is the rule in war, if our forces are ten to the enemy's one, to surround him; if five to one, to attack him;
If our force is twice as numerous as that of the enemy, it should be split up into two divisions, one to meet the enemy in front, and one to fall upon his rear; if he replies to the frontal attack, he may be crushed from behind;If equally matched, we can offer battle; if slightly inferior in numbers, we can avoid the enemy; if quite unequal in every way, we can flee from him. Hence, though an obstinate fight may be made by a small force, in the end it must be captured by the larger force."
Clausewitz makes this into his first principle of strategy:
"In such an aspect we grant, that the superiority in numbers is the most important factor in the result of a combat, only it must be sufficiently great to be a counterpoise to all the other co-operating circumstances. The direct result of this is, that the greatest possible number of troops should be brought into action at the decisive point."
and continues:
"There remains nothing, therefore, where an absolute superiority is not attainable, but to produce a relative one at the decisive point, by making skilful use of what we have."
So clearly both these guys measured power by the size of the guns. It might be that Clausewitz emphasis on physical force was due to him living at the peak of the mechanical world.
/felix
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