Some works by Clausewitz

[TankHunter]

http://www.clausewitz.com/CWZHOME/PrincWar/Princwr1.htm http://www.clausewitz.com/CWZHOME/VomKriege2/ONWARTOC2.HTML These are Principles of War and On War by Clausewitz. Some of you guys may find them interesting.

[Cobra2]

finally, i can read some clauses on wits. LOL

[HotTom]

Read this stuff a million years ago (along with Sun Tzu, Mao Tse Tung -- old spelling -- and even Harry Summers, who is no longer in vogue). Actually, only the second work "On War" is worth reading. There are some valuable lessons here. BUT, one of things the wisdom of old age has taught me is:

The only thing we learn from history is that we never learn anything from history.

And, besides, I looked through the table of contents and there was nothing on bounding overwatch or how to set up an L-shaped ambush or which fuse to choose in the CV-90. Practical stuff...:)

HT

[Cobra2]

i do not believe Clauswitz intended to take every tactical (practical) situation possible and figure out how to deal with it. rather, the whole text seems to deal with rational of the war strategy. that is to say he dealt with the elements of war that do not change at all. these being people and the reason for war. all other aspects simply support those to major elements. people make up soldiers and governments. greed or selfdefense is a reason for war. weapons simply empower people and such things as cultural differentiation or inequality (regardles of the truth therein) provide the engine of war.

how you fight as a person or as a platoon unit will be governed by the tools you have and those in the possesion of the enemy. here you can see that the stategic (and usually the operational) have little to do with the tactical.

its like hunting. you want to hunt deer. you go looking for deer and do not hunt anything else along the way. how you hunt the deer has nothing to do with the intent. if you have a trap, then you will try to trap the deer. if you have a rifle will try to shoot the quarry. the motive behind hunting does not reflect in any way how you do so. however, in every case the intention is the same. to hunt. unless the intention is to kill the deer, for whatever reason, then you may explore non lethal means. you can also give up altogether if initially unsuccessful in the hunt. all these actions are the 'Nature of the Hunt'. it in no way reflects how the hunt is suppose to be undertaken in the actual moment of the action. the Nature of the Hunt is only a dicision-making process conserned with hunting.