Using Tactics to Achieve Victory

Running head: TACTICS1
Tactics: A Journal
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TACTICS

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Tactics: A Journal
Tactics are used in warfighting to achieve on ultimate goal: victory. This means, tactics are only means to ends and should not embraced as scared and fixed. Instead, tactics, I have to understand are malleable yet are informed by more general techniques applied in more specific action-oriented procedures. Tactics should also be informed by nine principles of war: mass, objective, offensive, security, economy of force, maneuver, unity of command, surprise and simplicity (U.S. Marine Corps, 1997). Tactics should, moreover, be informed by and based on five central tenets: (i) Achieving A Decision, (ii) Gaining Advantage, (iii) Tempo (Speed), (iv) Adapting and, (v) Exploiting Success & Finishing The Enemy. Generally, tactics combine science and art and, as such, cannot be applied by all leaders in all situations to all combat units. Instead, tactics should be combined in such ways as to gain most advantage, economically, against enemy forces and as quickly as possible. To...