Friction in war -1

Everything is very simple in War, but the simplest thing is difficult.

These difficulties accumulate and produce a friction which no man can imagine exactly who has not seen War, Suppose now a traveller, who towards evening expects to accomplish the two stages at the end of his day’s journey, four or five leagues, with post-horses, on the high road—it is nothing. He arrives now at the last station but one, finds no horses, or very bad ones; then a hilly country, bad roads; it is a dark night, and he is glad when, after a great deal of trouble, he reaches the next station, and finds there some miserable accommodation. So in War, through the influence of an infinity of petty circumstances, which cannot properly be described on paper, things disappoint us, and we fall short of the mark. A powerful iron will overcomes this friction; it crushes the obstacles, but certainly the machine along with them. We shall often meet with this result. Like an obelisk towards which the principal streets of a town converge, the strong will of a proud spirit stands prominent and commanding in the middle of the Art of War.

Friction is the only conception which in a general way corresponds to that which distinguishes real War from War on paper. The military machine, the Army and all belonging to it, is in fact simple, and appears on this account easy to manage. But let us reflect that no part of it is in one piece, that it is composed entirely of individuals, each of which keeps up its own friction in all directions. Theoretically all sounds very well: the commander of a battalion is responsible for the execution of the order given; and as the battalion by its discipline is glued together into one piece, and the chief must be a man of acknowledged zeal, the beam turns on an iron pin with little friction. But it is not so in reality, and all that is exaggerated and false in such a conception manifests itself at once in War. The battalion always remains composed of a number of men, of whom, if chance so wills, the most insignificant is able to occasion delay and even irregularity. The danger which War brings with it, the bodily exertions which it requires, augment this evil so much that they may be regarded as the greatest causes of it.

General Carl von Clausewitz; CHAPTER VII. FRICTION IN WAR

It is certain that calculating every possibility is impossible, we have to guess what might happen next because we are always lack of time. In this case we are looking to occasions from time perspective.Time can not be changed or stopped. We have no chance of travel back in time and fix our mistakes and continue. We must use our intelligence that consists of information, data, gossip even whispers. All that data must be gathered and processed in a way that real picture of the real occasion must be drawned. If we are able to process our data correctly, we will increase our possibilities of guessing right. This data gathered must be processed and filtered from our experiences. Experience is the most valuable asset that shortens our consuming time for solution. We have to think multi-dimensional, calculate all possible possibilities in a short period of time. Quick decisions might be given wrong but better than not act at all.

Serdar Biçer