courses of action which, if
successfully carried out, will accomplish the task assigned. The
reasoned plan of the superior is a safeguard in this respect.

Nevertheless, realism requires that the commander be fully prepared to
meet the possible dilemma:--When he cannot envisage a course of action
for accomplishing the assigned task, or when, of the several courses
of action under consideration, he finds none satisfactory, what is he
to do? (See page 70).

Under these circumstances the commander reviews his estimate in all
its aspects. By minute re-examination he endeavors to find ways of
accomplishing his assigned task. If he cannot accomplish the task, he
seeks for ways whereby he can further such accomplishment so far as is
reasonably feasible. If unable, in any degree, to further the
accomplishment of his task, he endeavors to contribute, so far as he
feasibly and acceptably can, to the accomplishment of the purpose of
his mission.

It is to be expected, of course, that, if unable to accomplish his
assigned task, the commander will make constructive representations
(page 103) to higher authority. The latter may then assign additional
forces or may otherwise alter the problem,--for example, by assigning
a new task. However, a situation such as described may occur when the
commander is alone in a distant theater or when for other reasons he
finds himself unable to communicate, in time, with higher authority.

In such a situation the commander is under the necessity of
determining, for himself, a task which is suitable, feasible, and
acceptable under the circumstances (page 52).

It is evident that, at some point in the foregoing procedure, the
commander has been forced to abandon the solution of his basic
problem, because he has found that there is no sound solution. He has
not completely abandoned the solution of his original problem, because
he has not yet exhausted all of its possibilities. However, the
solution of the original problem has unquestionably entered a new
phase, or step.

The new step presents the commander with a new problem, a phase in the
solution of the original problem; the new problem is related to the
abandoned basic problem, because it arises out of the same situation,
which has not changed. The new problem is, however, differentiated
from the basic problem because it is based on a different incentive.
The incentive for the solution of the new problem arises directly out
of a decision m