Determining Where or What a Decisive Point is

So as shown in my previous post I have described that in order to defeat your opponent you have to break your opponent's will and ability to resist! But how do you do this decisively, which is quickly, which is through the least amount of time and the least amount of battles. The key to determining what a decisive point is is that it is a point that if defeated, destroyed or threatened, or captured, depending on the circumstances, will cause your opponent to lose the will and ability to resist to some degree. The key is to find the critical decisive point, which is a point that if taken, captured, or destroyed greatly reduces the will and abililty of your opponent to resist and causes your opponent to feeel defeated, and beaten. To do this; first, you have to determine who the strategic decisive group is, and then you have to find the decisive point which is broken into four categories, tactical, strategic, political, regular.

Many times when a campaign is commenced you try to orchestrate a campaign where you can defeat your opponent rapidly, and quickly, in the shortest amount of time. This is the basis behind blitzkrieg which is what the German army used in WW 2 to defeat countries such as Poland and France. By using speed through the use of tanks, and aircraft, and transport vehicles that could move rapidly and over great distances they were able to strike quickly into the heart of a country. This allowed Germany to threaten the government, and destroy the supply lines of the enemy forces, and make the enemy so nervous and scared, because you are behind his army and are threatening his homes and governement and resources, that the opponent loses the will to resist and surrenders. How do you cause an opponent to surrender quickly? Well first you have to define who your oppponent actually is. This is what I call the strategic decisive group. It is either the people, military, or government that opposes you from obtaining your campaign goals. But in order for that group to be the strategic decisive group they have to have the ability to act independently meaning they can't be controlled by the other two groups, and they have to be a group that has the will, which is the reason, the desire, to resist you. So if the enemy's military is attacking you but is under the control of the government then the government is the strategic decisive group because they control the military and have the abilityto stop the military from attacking you so the government must have the will and ability to resist you. The government has the ability by using the military, and the will by not feeling it necessary to stop the military. Or it could be the military who is resisting you but it is the people who have control over the government and through that have control of the military. So it's the people who have the will and the ability, the ability through the military and the will by not caring enough to try to apply enough pressure on the government to stop the military actions.


Once you know who the critical decisive group is then you got to determine which point is important to that group continueing to have the will and ability to resist. These are known as decisive points and can be broken down into four groups which are tactical, political, regular, and geographical. A tactical point is a point that has a group of enemy forces on it, and since some or all of the enemy force is there it is a tactical decisive point A political decisive point is a point that has something of political value, or is of value to the government, or a government agency. Such as a capital building, or a point where politicians are, or a point where that if taken it will limit the ability of the government to rule, or will cause the people to be disheartened such as the constitution being taken or something like that. A geographical decisive point is a point of value because of its geography, such as a hill, a mountain, a ridge, woods, a river, a lake, a ravine, something that if taken gives the side that holds it an advantage, or that limits the ability of the enemy to be able to attack you, or that weakens your opponent or weakens any advantages he may have. It is a decisive point because the side that holds it can weaken the opponent's will or ability to resist or will give an advantage in battle which will weaken opponents will or ability to resist. A regular decisive point is a point that holds something in the wayof supplies such as farming country, factories, warehouses, train tracks, train depots, airport, something that deals with supplies. I would also include cultural points in regular decisive points such as in this country the statue of liberty, because if the stutue of liberty were to be taken or destroyed, and for other cultures there are other points of value in their nations, that it would be a psychological blow that would weaken the will and ability to resist.


Any one of these categories if taken, destroyed, or captured can have an effect on any one of the strategic decisive groups who are in control and can cause them to lose the will and ability to resist. The key to taking a decisive point that causes the opponent to surrender is to find the one decisive point, out of probably the multiple decisive points available, that causes the opponent to loss the most heart and will and desire. To take the point that cause the opponent to feel defeated and beaten and that point is the point that needs to be attacked, and that point is the point that is known as the critical decisive point. A point that if taken greatly reduces your opponent's will and ability to resist and possibly causes the opponent to feel defeated and beaten.


This is the key to having a decisive victory and to having a victory that causes the opponent to surrender. The key is to figure out who your true opponent is by finding out the strategic decisive group, and to figure out what point that if destroyed, taken or captured will cause your opponent to feel defeated and beaten through the loss of will and ability, and will cause your opponent to surrender, and allow you to achieve your military, political, or economic goals and aims of the campaign.