11 October 2020 - decisive battle

Many works of military strategy promote the decisive battle that decides a conflict as a way to avoid the war of attrition where everyone loses. But decisive battles are rare; Hannibal was worn down in the end. More recently, think of NATO bombing in the Kosovo War, or the term “shock and awe”; the means and the language say “those little people will give up when they see us.” I answer, “is that what you would do?” Still, I have an important question. Do we see magical thinking—an intellectual fault—or a fault of the character, hubris?