No one said they were insane. They are just very poor at studying their art, and use language badly. Military history is mostly poor, in terms of informing practice.
So Hannibal, Julius Caesar and Alexander didn't conduct operations? What was anyone one of them doing that Napoleon was not?It is free to read online and traces operational warfare from its birth in the Napoleonic Era to 1991 and the Gulf War. The preface is two pages and describes the differences between strategy, operations, and tactics pretty well in a short space.
If you want to see just how poor the intellectual and historical basis for "An operational level" is, go read Shimon Naveh. "The Pursuit of Excellence."
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