Now that we have examined the art and science of tactics, let us look at how we use tactics to complement strategy and campaigning. Strategy and campaigning bring our forces to a particular place at a particular time. We use tactics to win in combat. A war typically involves many individual engagements that form a continuous fabric of activity. Sometimes a cluster of engagements flows together to make up a battle that may last for hours, days, or even several weeks. Tactical competence is indispensable to victory in such engagements and battles. Leaders at the operational and strategic levels use tactical victories to bring about success in the campaign and, ultimately, in the war as a whole.
In combat, our objective is victory. Sometimes this involves the complete destruction of the enemy's forces; at other times achieving victory may be possible by attacking the enemy's will to fight. The Marine Corps must be equally prepared to win during both situations—those in which the enemy forces must be completely destroyed (as during World War II), and those in which the complete destruction of the enemy's forces may not be necessary or even desirable. As the Commanding General of the 1st Marine Division in Des-ert Storm, stated, "Our focus was not on destroying everything. Our focus was on the Iraqi mind and getting behind [it]."[1] He knew that the path to victory did not lie in the total destruction of the Iraqi forces, but in undermining their will to fight.
