We have many books and papers outlining how to win wars — including classics, such as Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, Thucydides’ The History of the Peloponnesian War, and Clausewitz’s On War — but we may get more mileage out of a primer on how to lose a war, Zen Pundit suggests:
- War is the Continuation of Domestic Politics
- Policy is the True Fog of War
- Strategy is a Constraint to be Avoided
- All Lost Wars are based on Self-Deception
- Isolate the War and those Fighting it from the People
- Complexity = Opacity and Micromanagement = Power
- Enormous Tail, Tiny Tooth: the Worse the ROI the Better
- Cultivate Hatred and Contempt
- Protect that Which is Most Unimportant
- Level the Playing Field: Paralyze Your Own Tactical Advantages