Quotes of the day 10th November 2023

Seen on X, formerly twitter this week:

"Lesson of #Ukraine war is the amount of munitions you burn through. “Think of a ludicrous number, double it, add a zero, and you’re still not there.” – official under Chatham House Rule #IFC23"

One former soldier who saw this replied that it applied not just to the current war caused by Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine, but to every previous war.

Mick Ryan wrote

"Not a lesson from #Ukraine but a lesson from every war since the first Industrial Revolution. The real lesson is that those who don’t read history will keep getting surprised by such ‘secrets’ that are cleverly hidden in history books!"

That's why the quote has often been attributed to various generals from Napoleon to Omar Bradley that

"Amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics."

If a member of my family were serving today, I would hope his or her commanders had studied both tactics and logistics, but it is difficult to argue with the form of words for a similar saying attributed to Eisenhower:




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