T.E. Lawrence

 Main Points: 

We were obsessed by the dictum of Foch that the ethic of modern war is to seek for the enemy’s army, his center of power, and destroy it in battle. Irregulars would not attack positions and so they seemed to us incapable of forcing a decision. (3)

So they proved to us the second theorem of irregular war – namely, that irregular troops are as unable to defend a point or line as they are to attack it. (3)

Perhaps the virtue of irregulars lay in depth, not in face, and that it had been the threat of attack by them upon the Turkish northern flank which had made the enemy hesitate for so long. (4)

Arab aim: to occupy all Arabic-speaking lands in Asia (7)

Tactics: the means towards the strategic end. (7)

Elements of conflict: algebraical, biological, and psychological. (7)

Consequently our cue should be to destroy not the Army but the materials. The death of a Turkish bridge or rail, machine or gun, or high explosive was more profitable to us than the death of a Turk. (Turks had plenty people, but equipment/food due to supply was limited) (9)

Developed an unconscious habit of not engaging the enemy. (10)

The ratio between number and area determined the character of the war, and by having five times the mobility of the Turks we could be on terms with them with one-fifth their number. (13)

Our victory lay not in battles, but in occupying square miles of country. (13)

In character these operations were more like naval warfare than ordinary land operations. (14)

Our tactics were always tip and run, not pushes, but strokes. (15)

Maximum disorder was in a real sense our equilibrium. (18)

Irregular war is far more intellectual than a bayonet charge. (20)

Successful Rebellion must have: (22)

<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0level1lfo1"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri"> -          Rebellion must have an unassailable base, something guarded not merely from attack, but from the fear of it

<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0level1lfo1"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri"> -          Must have a sophisticated alien enemy, in the form of a disciplined army of occupation too small to fulfill the doctrine of acreage: too few to adjust number to space, in order to dominate the whole area effectively from fortified posts.

<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0level1lfo1"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri"> -          Friendly population, but not actively friendly, but sympathetic to the point of not betraying rebel movements