The final outcome is dependent ([page 8]) on ability to isolate, occupy, or otherwise control the territory of the enemy. The sea, though it supplements the resources of land areas, is destitute of many essential requirements of man, and affords no basis, alone, for the secure development of human activities. Land is the natural habitat of man. The sea provides routes of communication between land areas. The air affords routes of communication over both land and sea.
These facts inject into military operations certain factors peculiar to movement of military forces by land, sea, and air ([page 60]). There are also involved the specialized demands of a technique for the imposition of and the resistance to physical violence. In addition there appear those factors related to the psychology of human reactions to armed conflict.
In any situation involving opposing armed forces, the problem, as in any human activity ([page 30]), is, from the standpoint of each opponent, a matter of maintaining existing conditions or of bringing about a change. The method employed, if the action is to be effective, will follow lines calculated to shape the ensuing progressive changes in circumstances toward the attainment of the end in view. The action to be taken will be ineffective if it does not support the calculated line of endeavor, i.e., if it is not suitable or adequate forcibly to shape the course of events either toward the creation of a desired new and more favorable situation, or the maintenance of the original conditions.
The analysis of the principal components of a military problem—i.e., the military objectives and the military operations appropriate to the effort for their attainment—therefore requires a study of such objectives and operations in terms, respectively, of a favorable military situation ([page 37]) and of a favorably progressing military operation ([page 38]). As has been observed, the salient features of such a situation or operation are, from the abstract viewpoint, identical, as are also the factors which determine the character of such features ([page 39]). As a covering word for such features and factors, alike, the term "elements" appears especially suitable, inasmuch as it properly comprises the constituent parts of any subject, as well as the factors which may pertain thereto.
Accordingly, the analysis, following, of the procedure for selection of correct military objectives is made in terms of the essential elements of a favorable military situation. For like reasons, the analysis of the procedure for determining the character of the detailed operations required is made in terms of the essential elements of a favorably progressing military operation. (For these elements, see the salient features and the factors cited in the Fundamental Military Principle, [page 41].)
II. SELECTION OF CORRECT MILITARY OBJECTIVES
Nature of Military Objectives. In the previous discussion ([page 36]), the military objective has been defined as the end toward which action is being, or is to be, directed. As such it has been noted as an objective in mind. The tangible focus of effort, the physical objective toward which the action is directed, has been observed to be an objective in space. The physical objective is always an object, be it only a geographical point, while the objective, being a mental concept, is a situation to be created or maintained.
The term "objective" requires circumspection, not only in the manner of its expression (see [page 53]), but in its use. The latter is true because the purport of the objective under consideration will vary with the viewpoint of the echelon concerned. For instance, the proper visualization of an objective, as an "effect desired" ([page 19]), calls for a correct answer to the question, "Who desires this effect to be produced?" (See [page 4]).
A variety of viewpoints is thus a natural characteristic of the chain of command ([pages 11-13]), whose functioning creates what may be called a "chain of objectives".
Necessary exceptions aside, the commander expects to receive, from his immediate superior, an assigned objective, which that superior thus enjoins the commander to attain. The commander, in turn, through the use of the natural mental processes already explained, decides on an objective, for the general effort of his own force, to attain the objective assigned by his immediate superior.