Combat aims at defeating armed enemies -- regular, irregular, or both. It concludes successfully when those enemies capitulate or are destroyed. It is the demonstration of credible combat power that primarily deters aggression.
Historically, one or both of two defeat mechanisms have been employed
in combat.16 Attrition wears down an adversary’s human and material
resources. Disruption attacks his organizational cohesion or effective
functioning so that even if elements of the enemy system remain undamaged,
the enemy cannot operate as a coherent whole. Both defeat mechanisms also
psychologically affect the enemy’s will to fight.
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