Tactical successes, those attained in the course of the engagement, usually occur during the phase of disarray and weakness. On the other hand, the strategic success, the overall effect of the engagement, the completed victory, whether great or insignificant, already lies beyond that phase. The strategic outcome takes shape only when the fragmented results have combined into a single, independent whole. But at that point the crisis is over, the forces regain their original cohesion, weakened only by the casualties they have actually suffered. The consequence of this difference is that in the
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