What is 'initiative' and 'tactical'

Since Condoleeza Rice “admitted” that “tactical errors” occurred in Iraq there has been much confusion in the MSM and the blogosphere about this. Part of this comes because when Condoleeza Rice uses the words “tactical error” she means them in the sense that they have passed into the civilian lexicon: basically a miscalculation. However, in the military, tactical is the lowest level of operations below operational and strategic, and saying tactical errors implies that decision makers on the ground have made errors.

Then in the article, “The junior officers debate Rummy” on “News Blog” (also referencing “Young Officers Join the Debate Over Rumsfeld”) seems to muddy the waters even more by introducing a flawed definition of initiative. It implies that simply because you are attacked you have lost the initiative.

Just because you can shoot your way out of a mess does not make it a victory. In some messes, the enemy had the initiative.

I have no knowledge of any time since the invasion where we have lost the initiative. We did give it up in the First Battle of Falluja, and there have been times where, for whatever reason, we have stopped our advance, but we have never been stopped. Merely being attacked does not cause you to loose initiative.

We have free movement throughout the country. People would have you believe that because there are IED’s; that is not true. An IED is an obstacle. Obstacles are not permanent impediments, but only slow you down. We ship tremendous quantities of materiél and manpower throughout the country. There are huge bases built in some cases from scratch, and our operations may not always catch the people that they are after, but it is only because they leave.

We drive the enemy before us everyday. They cannot fight us, and do not try. The only reason it may not seem like it, and the major problem with local based insurgency, is that they have nowhere else to go. Therefore, since surrender is not an option, they will fight on. This gives finality minded people in America conniptions, because they want closure. But you do not get it. However, that does not mean we do not have initiative. We set the tempo, and we dictate the battle. The only reason that we cannot determine the terrain is because they have already gone to ground, in the last places that they can hide.

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