What is the most important aspect of warfare and why?

I say knowledge first. If you know your enemy well enough you can concoct a plan to destroy them.

Second is violence of action.

This is the most important aspect of any war either mental or physical. You need to use overwhelming shocking violence and apply it as fast as possible. See at the starting gate both sides are on equal footing. You are in an area of vulnerability until you capture the high ground metaphorically. You need to overwhelm the opponent as quickly as possible to reach a state called relative superiority. Once you have relative superiority you pretty much have the game locked in your favor.

No one will ever get into that position of relative superiority unless they use violence of action. SO say a swat team is about to raid some drug lords house. WHen they are staging and approaching the house, stacking up outside a door or the windows they are in a vulnerable position. They use dynamic entries (rapid overwhelming force concentrated in certain places) to achieve relative superiority to stun and defeat the opponent. If they botch the time when they are in the area of vulnerability they are screwed and will get shwacked.

The same concept applies to empty hand fighting too (fist fights etc) The best option is to size up the opponent and then you initiate physical hostilities first. Thats right it;s key in a hand to hand fight to hit first once threat is imminent. You go right in and smother the opponent with an onslaught of punches kicks bumps whatever you can muster, but it has to be fast and overwhelming (violence of action) to work. Once you have the guy backing up you've turned the fight and you will be the victor. So to sum it up two fighters square off circle whatever. thats stage 1. Both are in a position of vulnerability. Stage 2 you go on the offensive being as violent and aggressive as possible (violence of action) to achieve relative superiority which is stage 3.

When you use violence of action you are forcing the enemy to react instead of attack. You are screwing up their plans by forcing them to act before they are ready. You control the tempo. You win.

SO other than knowledge VIolence of Action is the most important aspect of all warfare from small to large. Without it you will only die tired.

1. The best trained military will almost always win. A untrained military is useless even with superior numbers.(Pilots that can’t fly useless soldiers who can’t shoot or know how to clean their weapons useless ask any DI.)Don’t laugh I had to retrain Iraqi soldiers that couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn if you put them 10 feet in front of it.

2. Intelligence-knowledge of enemy strengths weakness location along with communication with your own force. SALUTE Size, Activity, Location, Unit, Time, and Equipment (US DoD)

3. Equipment the best possible technological advantage the better.

The Media,because it conditions and controls people's minds,you can make your enemy or population believe in something that is not even there,once you've got control of the people's minds,you've got there body.

reply to post by Neocrusader

Knowledge does have to be at the top...."Know your enemy and know yourself and you will not lose (in) 1000 battles." Sun Tzu

As per US Arny FM-100 (which edifies the principles of the "art of war" as written by Sun Tzu) consider:
Mass (Concentration)
Offense (defense is a subprincicple)
Objective
Security
Economy of Force
Maneuver
Unity of Command
Surprise
Simplicity
(not necessarily in that order)

reply to post by BASSPLYR

Your "violence of action" concept combines several principles of "the art of war"; specifically, Surprise, Offense, Manuever and Mass/Concentration.

reply to post by SymbolicLogic

Knowledge


Knowledge is power
Knowing yourself and capabilities
Knowing your enemy and his capabilities
Knowing your environment
Ect

That’s IT….that’s the Key to Victory.

Everything else you can improvise.

Knowledge is the key
As has been stated, there are many good ideas put forward, however many have been principles of warfare or aspects that ultimately fall out from knowledge

Again as has been stated Sun tzu's art of war is a good place to start
Originally written in ........500 BC ! It's still taught today
However - due to its age can be a little hard to digest

But still a worth while read
But if you struggle to get your mind around it try
Unrestricted warfare or warfare without limits
Written by 2 Chinese colonels ( at the time ) in 1998/1999

The same ideas just brought into the 21st century

Having a better OODA-loop.

If you don't know who John Boyd is you need to read up, he's on par with Clausewitz or Sun Tzu.

your plan and how well it's executed. your mindset. your environment. your cause. your ability.

the most important aspect of warfare? purpose.

reply to post by GreenGlassDoor


Yaaaayyyyy

OODA loop

Observation
Orientation
Decision
Act

And round you go again

"get the frag outta my OODA loop...........SIR"

Why is it NC when you say sir it sounds like c**t"
"practice..................sir"

Leadership is the most important aspect of warfare.

History is littered with fantastic armies with well trained soldiers being frittered away by poor leadership. The reverse is true where tattered armies are reinvigorated to victory by leadership.

The easy, well known examples

1. Hitler's interference (leadership) hobbled the Nazi war machine and turned a poor situation worse.
2. The little known General Slim who took a defeated army in the Far East to resounding victory against the Japanese in Burma.

Regards

No wars are won through tactical victory, they are won only through strategic victory.

A better question might be then: why do we want to elevate any element of successful strategic planning above the others? They are all critical and dependent upon each other.

.....OK, OK.... too shop talk-ish for this thread, Got It. How about: all the s*** hanging off the assault rifle is key. No way can we hope to bring democracy to the planet without a dozen gizmos hanging of our troops rifles. That and Gillie suits.

Understanding your own capabilities. If you know a situation where you win 100 times out of 100, that is the location the military is the most capable. Being capable involves knowledge, communication and a nice evac route.

For me, the most important aspect of warfare is plan and knowledge. Because having this two aspect will lead to a good and smart choice of strategy..

Two pages and nobody mentioned it yet?

Fear.

One can't lose if the other to too afraid to fight back.

logistics
Because it's so hopelessly underrated/ignored.
Do the math - how many tons of supplies would you have to ship daily to keep 100.000 men fighting?
Now what if it takes 4 days to get it to them? The trucks go there and back. And they need gas too. And the drivers food and water as well.

The most important aspect of war is the psychological aspect.

With this you can win a war without firing a shot.

What is the most important aspect of warfare and why?

It serves as a reminder that humans have little clue as to how to live in harmony, choosing instead to follow ignorance, fear, manipulation, ego and self-destruction.

It serves as a reminder that if you become obsessed with your own beliefs, you also become a threat to others - perceived or otherwise.

And it serves as a reminder that for all our 'intelligence', advanced weaponry and military power, we are little more than sh*t-throwing monkeys.

Air power. Whoever controls the air space controls the battlefield

reply to post by SymbolicLogic


The most important aspect of warfare I believe is avoiding war.