Hard to Compare

“Military strategy is, almost by definition, deceptive. It can be compared with very few human activities. Certainly there are other kinds of strategists–heads of state and diplomats, corporate leaders and investment bankers, all manner of institutional planners–but ultimately, win or lose, very few (if any) go to the hospital or the morgue. War is about killing and dying; this changes the psychological dimension entirely and also the basis for comparison. In drawing any kind of plausible analogy, the possibility of dying must be a factor” (Robert L. O’Connell, Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman, 15).