Quote Originally Posted by M.L. View Post
For those of you who are willing to entertain the idea that the vast majority of the military and history communities are not insane.
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.
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.
So Hannibal, Julius Caesar and Alexander didn't conduct operations? What was anyone one of them doing that Napoleon was not?

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."