The biggest problem was the politicians knew nothing about fighting a war.
I was learning, as I did in the Ministry of Defense. I never knew, but I always learned.
Generals know nothing about the economics of war.
I know something about aircraft carriers for real.
If you talk to a British officer or NCO about the strategic objectives of the end state, you'll often get a spirited discussion that's very well informed.
A small country like Israel has compulsory military training. But countries like India, that are so much bigger, have no compulsory military training, so people don't understand how the military functions. They have no knowledge of how it works, no respect for it.
Given this president [Donald Trump] and his lack of military experience, I think it actually might be a good thing to have someone who understands the military very deeply to be counseling him.
I am the very model of a modern Major-General, I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral, I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical, From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical.
I'm going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated.
Who knows better than you what it means to have a commander-in-chief who lived his entire life, who lived throughout the entire Cold War, and doesn't know what the nuclear triad is? It's absolutely astonishing. And so it's terrific to have Joe Dunford and you know, perhaps John Bolton and other people in positions of trust.
The courage of a soldier is heightened by his knowledge of his profession.
I understand the military. I know the military.
Knowledge in war is very simple, being concerned with so few subjects, and only with their final results at that. But this does not make its application easy.
We have long possessed the art of war and the science of war, which have been evolved in the minutest detail.
Many soldiers are led to faulty ideas of war by knowing too much about too little.
I don't underrate the value of military knowledge, but if men make war in slavish obedience to rules, they will fail.
