26 SECTION 7 : ELEMENTS FOR OPERATIONAL SUCCESS “War is an art and as such is not susceptible of explanation by fixed formula.” – General George S. Patton, Jr, War As I Knew It, 1947. 3.1 Operational Success. War is a national undertaking that is coordinated from the highest levels of policy-making to the basic levels of execution. The objective of military forces in war is to achieve early and decisive victory over the opposing forces with minimum casualties to own forces. The major aspects that contribute towards operational success are: • Understanding the various perspectives of war. • Employing operational art. • Judicious application of combat power. • Efficient exercise of C2 in the battlefield. Perspectives of War 3.2 The perspective of war varies based on which level it is viewed from even though the objectives to be achieved at strategic, operational and tactical levels would flow downwards from the top. For clarity of understanding of the complex nature of operational scenarios, it is imperative that the commanders at all levels recognize the fine differences between the three levels of perspective given in succeeding paragraphs. These perspectives are, however, not mutually exclusive and do tend to overlap at the fringes. 3.3 Strategic Perspective. Viewed from the strategic perspective, war is a continuum to secure national policy objectives in concert with defined or perceived national security goals. The end state of a war must provide the