Niégales los objetivos: Estrategia del Vacío

DENY THEM TARGETS
THE STRATEGY OF THE VOID

The feeling of emptiness or void--silence, isolation,
nonengagement with others--is for most people
intolerable. As a human weakness, that fear offers
fertile ground for a powerful strategy: give your
enemies no target to attack, be dangerous but
elusive and invisible, then watch as they chase you
into the void. This is the essence of guerrilla warfare.
Instead of frontal battles, deliver irritating but
damaging side attacks and pinprick bites. Frustrated
at their inability to use their strength against your
vaporous campaign, your opponents will grow
irrational and exhausted. Make your guerrilla war
part of a grand political cause--a people's war--that
crests in an irresistible revolution.
Robert Greene


In addition to wasting an ever-increasing
proportion of French manpower, the elusive
Russian tactics also contributed to the mental
as well as physical exhaustion of Napolean's
forces. Tip and run raids by small bands of
Cossacks were continuous and exercised a
baleful influence far in excess of the military
danger they represented. The French army
became increasingly subject to fits of the jitters.
Captain Roeder noted one typical example in
his diary. The Hessian troops were mustering
for parade before the Emperor's quarters at
Vitebsk on August 17, when "everything was
suddenly thrown into ridiculous uproar because
a few Cossacks had been sighted, who were
said to have carried off a forager. The entire
garrison sprang to arms, and when they had
ridden out it was discovered that we were really
surrounded by only a few dozen Cossacks who
were dodging about hither and thither. In this
way they will be able to bring the whole garrison
to hospital in about fourteen days without losing
a single man.
THE CAMPAIGNS OF NAPOLEON, DAVID G.
CHANDLER, 1966