Any lesser accomplishment, such as infliction of damage on the enemy battleship, or its repulse, or its diversion elsewhere, would also be suitable to the appropriate effect desired, though not in the same degree. Each such visualized accomplishment, suitable to the appropriate effect desired, may properly be considered as a tentatively selected objective.
An objective having been tentatively selected on the basis of the appropriate effect desired, its final selection will naturally depend, as indicated in the Principle, on the feasibility of the effort involved in the attainment of each such objective, and on the acceptability of the consequences as to costs.
In investigating such feasibility, account is taken of the relative fighting strength. With relation to the enemy battleship, for example (see above), the commander would consider the means available to him and the means opposed (including the enemy battleship and any supporting forces), as influenced by the characteristics of the theater.
This investigation will include, necessarily, a sufficient analysis of the salient features of the operation required to attain each objective. Such features include the nature of the physical objectives (the battleship and any other forces, for instance), the possibilities of relative position, the problems involved in apportioning the forces on either side, and the proper considerations as to freedom of action.
A similar study with respect to the acceptability of the consequences to be expected, as to the costs involved in the operation, will provide a basis for a conclusion as to that factor.
If the attainment of an objective is found to be infeasible, or feasible only at the expense of unacceptable consequences, the proposed objective will naturally be rejected, and some other objective will be considered ([page 33]).
The objective finally adopted as the best will be that which, all things considered, is best adapted to the requirements of suitability, feasibility, and acceptability, as outlined in the Fundamental Military Principle.
The Appropriate Effect Desired, as the Basis for the Objective. As will be appreciated from the foregoing discussion, the first factor in the selection of a correct objective is the "appropriate effect desired". The evaluation of this factor is not always easy, for reasons which will be explained.
The procedure (as indicated by the Principle of the Appropriate Effect to be Desired—[page 33]) is the same as for the selection of an objective. This identity of procedure is natural, because the appropriate effect desired, used as a basis for selecting the commander's general objective, itself involves the appreciation of an objective. The latter is, in fact, one of the "chain of objectives" previously mentioned ([page 48]).
Under conventional conditions this objective is selected by higher authority, and is assigned to the commander in his instructions from the next higher echelon ([page 48]). The objective so indicated will of course, under sound procedure, have been selected by higher authority on the basis embodied in the Fundamental Military Principle.