Читать книгу American Civil War For Dummies - Keith D. Dickson - Страница 90

War employs all types of force: physical, psychological, economic, diplomatic, and moral. The physical force of armed conflict is also called combat power — the collective efforts of humans, animals, and mechanical-industrial power harnessed to fight or strike an opponent at a vital spot. This combat power is organized into armies. Armies employ combat power in two ways, through the offensive and the defensive. In the offensive, one army chooses to advance, find, and defeat enemy forces by employing decisive combat power at the right place and time. In the defense, an army attempts to protect itself by minimizing its vulnerabilities and forcing the attacking army to expend combat power until it is too weak to attack any further.