. No nation has, as yet,
manifested willingness to relinquish the right to employ armed force
in resisting aggression, nor the right to decide what constitutes
self-defense. States still maintain and employ armed forces as a means
of promoting and expanding, as well as of defending, their welfare and
interests.

The Primary Function of the Armed Forces. Whether war is an ethical
institution is not a matter within the purview of the armed forces.
Their primary function is, when called upon to do so, to support and,
within the sphere of military effort, to enforce the policy of the
State. The performance of this function constitutes the chief reason
for their existence.

The fundamental objective of the armed forces is, therefore, the
reduction of the opposing will to resist. It is attained through the
use of actual physical violence or the threat thereof (page 7). This
fact constitutes the underlying motive of every military plan, whether
for the conduct of a minor or contributory operation, or for the
prosecution of a major campaign. The final outcome is dependent on
ability to isolate, occupy, or otherwise control the territory of the
enemy, for land is the natural habitat of man (page 46). Since
opposition is to be expected, the military problem is primarily
concerned with the application of power--mental, moral, and
physical--in overcoming resistance, or in exerting effort to resist.

The application of power implies effort, i.e., the exertion of
strength. The mental, moral, and physical power at the disposal of the
armed forces depends on the effort which can be exerted by the human
and material components of their fighting strength.

The skillful employment of fighting strength, as a weapon more
effective than the enemy's under a given set of circumstances, is the
goal toward which the armed forces direct their effort. The elements
of the material component--arms, ammunition, and other equipment--are
indispensable. They are impotent, however, without the direction and
energy supplied by the human component, its moral and mental elements
nicely balanced and judiciously compounded with physical fitness. A
true concept of the art of war will insist that the necessity for the
achievement of a high standard of technical and administrative skill
not be permitted to outweigh the need for maximum development of other
mental attainments, and of the moral components of fighting strength.

The moral elements include all