How to Fight a War Quotes

“If you, as the overall commander of your forces, can tell a story that your troops, the enemy troops and commander, and the wider world population can understand, then you will be a successful military leader.”
― Mike Martin, How to Fight a War

“tanks will always beat tweets.”
― Mike Martin, How to Fight a War

“But as with all warfare, we are seeking to change the enemy’s mind. Warfare is not a spreadsheet; it is a conversation.”
― Mike Martin, How to Fight a War

“Mountains are, and always have been, simple hard facts of geography when it comes to land operations.”
― Mike Martin, How to Fight a War

“The primacy of the land domain is straightforward to convey. People live on land, and war is a human phenomenon driven by the most powerful of emotions.”
― Mike Martin, How to Fight a War

“the foundational elements of warfare: strategy, logistics, morale and training.”
― Mike Martin, How to Fight a War

“Professional, volunteer armies from democracies tend to have strong layers of NCOs sitting between the soldiery and the officer class.”
― Mike Martin, How to Fight a War

“Young men in particular are attracted by the promise of adventure, camaraderie, and the chance to ‘prove themselves’. Such feelings often change once they have experienced a war.”
― Mike Martin, How to Fight a War

“Training is not education. Your training programme should focus on learning skills and behaviours that are practically focussed on outcomes.”
― Mike Martin, How to Fight a War

“Put simply, there is an unbreakable link between morale, discipline, and casualty rate.”
― Mike Martin, How to Fight a War

“Morale is so important in generating and maintaining your ability to fight that your enemy will explicitly seek to destroy your morale, thus shattering your cohesion and eroding your fighting spirit.”
― Mike Martin, How to Fight a War

“The largest scale example of a ‘shipping lane’ conflict is the Battle of the Atlantic in the Second World War.”
― Mike Martin, How to Fight a War

“Yet if your country is serious about fighting and winning wars, you must spend a great deal of time focussing on container ships, railways and articulated lorries, and systems for counting everything.”
― Mike Martin, How to Fight a War

“Lethal violence is ultimately a method of communicating in war, and if you are not comfortable with that fact, you should not be a war leader.”
― Mike Martin, How to Fight a War

“Strategy is not a nice art. Nor is it a place for wishfulness, thinking well of people, hope, or overconfidence. It is an arena where extreme realists excel.”
― Mike Martin, How to Fight a War

“Ultimately, the D-Day landings are the most complex, and successful, amphibious operations in history—”
― Mike Martin, How to Fight a War

“strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory; [but] tactics without strategy is the noise before the defeat’.”
― Mike Martin, How to Fight a War

“A note on strategy Strategy is not a nice art. Nor is it a place for wishfulness, thinking well of people, hope, or overconfidence. It is an arena where extreme realists excel. You should not be a strategic leader if you cannot contemplate sacrificing 4,000 of your own soldiers or allowing a civilian population to remain under extreme humanitarian pressure from your enemy—say, starving and under siege—to achieve a strategic objective.”
― Mike Martin, How to Fight a War