What is the typical response to getting punched in the face? Generally, it is to hit back. The natural reaction or reflex is to strike back at a person who hits you. While this is useful in a physical fight, it may be less useful in psychological warfare.
While I enjoy attrition warfare when it is used to make a clear point or display force, it is less useful if your goal is the full-scale destruction of an opponent. Perhaps attrition warfare can still be a piece of your combat strategy, but your overall strategy must include more aspects of total war than just the fighting.
When I say “Attrition Warfare“, the image I want you to have in your mind is lines of soldiers crashing into one another, or firing rifles into each other’s ranks. These men continue to fire or fight until one side runs out of men.
As epic as that style of warfare can be, it is very costly, even to the victorious side. This is why it is much more profitable to use maneuver warfare if your goal is to totally annihilate your enemy.
I find that we commonly tend to use attrition warfare in many of our social interactions. If people start a verbal joust with us, we respond by hitting right back. But practically speaking, would it not be better to hamstring an opponent’s horse rather than actually engage in a jousting match with him? That would be an example of maneuver warfare. It requires more thinking and planning, but it can do infinitely more damage at almost no cost to you.
What we need to become aware of as men is the tendency we have to rise up and charge into battle. I often talk about the warlike nature of man and its importance. While that nature is undoubtedly important, it must be combined with rational thought and planning. You will be one-hundred times more efficient at warfare if you combine that warlike spirit with the pin-point precision of grand strategy.
It is incredibly satisfying to engage in this attrition warfare, to punch the enemy right back. This is why I generated the title of this post and hope you will remember it:
Attrition Warfare = Instant Gratification
Instead of delaying gratification by choosing the must more effective yet less satisfying maneuver warfare, we prefer to punch a person right back. After all, it feels great to punch back, especially in psychological warfare. But we must count the cost of that type of war. Others may see us act foolishly and we damage the possibility of trade opportunities. Relationships can be damaged. there is collateral damage to attrition warfare.
If you are engaged in psychological warfare and they punch you in the face, you should not be thinking about how to hit them back, but about how to burn down their house. Think about how you can draw them further into your field so you can crush them. Allow them to think that they are gaining the upper hand or that you are weak. This will encourage them to attack and they will begin to act too quickly.
Overly-ambitious action will lead to mistakes. Mistakes allow you to counterattack from the flank doing much more damage to them than they did to you. If you want to crush your enemy, maneuver around them, draw them into the open field, and then hit them from all sides. Incorporate this philosophy into your thinking.
