“The more usual reason for adopting a strategy of limited aim is that of awaiting a change in the balance of force ... The essential condition of such a strategy is that the drain on him should be disproportionately greater than on oneself.” ShouldReasonForceGreaterConditionsMilitaryBalanceEssentialsAimStrategyOneselfUsualDrainsAdopting Author:B. H. Liddell Hart
“For if we merely take what obviously appears the line of least resistance, its obviousness will appeal to the opponent also; and this line may no longer be that of least resistance. In studying the physical aspect, we must never lose sight of the psychological, and only when both are combined is the strategy truly an indirect approach, calculated to dislocate the opponent's balance.” IfsMayLosesLinesStudyMilitaryBalanceApproachAspectSightStrategyResistancePsychologicalAppealsOpponentsIndirectObviousness Author:B. H. Liddell Hart
“The economy - once a great scatter of small productive units in autonomous balance, has become dominated by two or three hundred giant corporations, administratively and politically interrelated... The political order, once a decentralized set of several dozen states with a weak spinal cord, has become a centralized executive establishment which has taken up into itself many powers previously scattered... The military order, once a slim establishment in a context of distrust fed by state militia, has become the largest and most expensive feature of government.” TwoStatesGovernmentPoliticalOrderThreeEconomyTakenMilitaryBalanceHundredWeakCorporationsFeaturesGiantsExpensiveProductiveExecutivesFedsEstablishmentDozenUnitsDistrustCordsMilitiaSlimAutonomousSpinal Cord Author:C. Wright Mills
“Because by definition they lack any sense of mutuality or wholeness, our specializations subsist on conflict with one another. The rule is never to cooperate, but rather to follow one's own interest as far as possible. Checks and balances are all applied externally, by opposition, never by self-restraint. Labor, management, the military, the government, etc., never forbear until their excesses arouse enough opposition to force them to do so.” SelfEnoughGovernmentForceInterestMilitaryBalanceConflictLaborManagementEnvironmentalDefinitionsChecksOppositionEtcExcessSustainabilityWholenessRestraintSpecializationSelf Restraint Author:Wendell Berry
“Military metaphors are rarely exact, but sending Republicans against Democrats when the issue hangs in the balance is nearly always as futile as sending George B. McClellan against Robert E. Lee, the Italians against Marshal Montgomery's desert rats or an Arab armored division against an Israeli rifle company. The copy desk can write the headline before the battle begins and take the rest of the night off.” WritingNightCompanyIssuesMilitaryBalanceRepublicanBattleDemocratMetaphorDesertCopiesDivisionDesksRatsIsraeliHeadlinesRiflesMontgomeryMcclellan Author:Wesley Pruden
“I believe military force can be used to redress or change the balance of power in the world, but I think that that's always a losing operation if you're not trying to do it in a way which corresponds to the basic desires of the people on whom you are acting.” PeopleIfsThinkingWorldWayTryingBelieveUsedDesireForceI BelieveActingMilitaryBalanceLosingOperationsMilitary ForceRedressBalance Of Power Author:Pierre Trudeau
“There's always a balance, I think, any administration has to find in not just the military but in any agency of government.” ThinkingGovernmentMilitaryBalanceAdministrationAgency Author:Chuck Hagel
“On the other hand, you have to balance that against expanding our nuclear forces, add to our so-called depleted military, which is already more powerful than the rest of the world combined; attack in Syria, send forces to Syria, start bombing. Who knows what could be next?” KnowsWorldHandsNextForcePowerfulMilitaryBalanceAddNuclearSyriaExpandingBombing Author:Noam Chomsky