Sometimes a dose of Churchill can cleanse the cognitive
cobwebs, if for nothing else, than to enjoy the profundity of precise pontificating.
Churchill could read aloud a phonebook and it would sound powerful. That is in
part why his portrayal of the War to End all Wars, The Great War, is on many
levels…powerful. Read for instance his several sentence summary of the entire
war on page 558, around the middle of the page. Consider the problem of parity
that essentially entangled both sides of the war, as they struggled against
each other — more importantly as they struggled against themselves. In many
respects, the parity problem was a function of concepts, not capabilities. They
struggled with their own selves trying to figure out how many of the new means
of warfare could be used to effect and for advantage. Both sides had plenty of
capability; what they lacked was a concept to put those capabilities to use. In
the process, both sides literally went to ground as they could gain little more
than feet and yards at a time against each other. Should we consider a similar
problem today as the ubiquity of information, communication, and connected data
technology are transforming the means of waging warfare? Are there virtual
trenches from which we may one day find ourselves fighting as we struggle with
one another, trying to break through the latest breakthroughs? Consider instead
how “Craft, foresight, deep comprehension of the verities, not only local but
general; strategems, devices, manoevres…” might instead form the basis for how
we find potential in the parity problem.[1]
World Crisis-Churchill (Excerpt) by Joe Royo on Scribd
