Now, ‘high-intensity conflict’ is a fancy word for saying tanks on tanks, aircraft shooting each other out of the sky, a great deal of violence at a level we haven’t seen since probably the Korean War or World War II, where you have big armies facing off against one another.
Native Americans had only stone and wooden weapons and no animals that could be ridden. Those military advantages repeatedly enabled troops of a few dozen mounted Spaniards to defeat Indian armies numbering in the thousands.
Washington has incentivized the militarization of local police precincts by using federal dollars to help municipal governments build what are essentially small armies – where police departments compete to acquire military gear that goes far beyond what most of Americans think of as law enforcement.
When the first armies were formed, combat took courage, which women share equally with men, and strength, which we do not. But though I am only 4 feet 7 inches tall, with a gun in my hand I am the equal of a soldier who’s 6 feet 7 – perhaps even at a slight advantage, as I make a smaller target.
In the past, war was confined for the most part to men in uniform, but with increased mechanization of armies and the introduction of air forces, there is an increased dependence on the home country, and eight to ten people working at home are now required to keep one man in the fighting line.
Justice is an unassailable fortress, built on the brow of a mountain which cannot be overthrown by the violence of torrents, nor demolished by the force of armies.
A handful of men, inured to war, proceed to certain victory, while on the contrary, numerous armies of raw and undisciplined troops are but multitudes of men dragged to the slaughter.
This war differs from other wars, in this particular. We are not fighting armies but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war.
By the breaking in of enraged merciless armies, flourishing countries have been laid waste, great numbers of people have perished in a short time, and many more have been pressed with poverty and grief.
For good or for ill, air mastery is today the supreme expression of military power and fleets and armies, however vital and important, must accept a subordinate rank.
The great armies, accumulated to provide security and preserve the peace, carried the nations to war by their own weight.
God is on everyone’s side… and in the last analysis, he is on the side with plenty of money and large armies.
If you’re in the middle of a field, surrounded by armies, left right and centre, you can’t just say: ‘I’ve had enough now, sorry.’
Once the command of the air is obtained by one of the contending armies, the war becomes a conflict between a seeing host and one that is blind.
For a long time, it was believed that war was waged by armies which could not be identified with the nation itself. Professional soldiers took upon themselves the job of defending national interests, and it was understood that the war affected only them; the country itself went on living and working.
Two armies that fight each other is like one large army that commits suicide.
On the fields of Media, of Arabia, and of Armenia, two great armies will assemble thrice. The host near the bank of the Araxes, they will fall in the land of the great Suleiman.
Planning is really the hallmark of any large military formation, and it’s typically a weakness in new formations and new armies.
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