Quote Originally Posted by Rex Brynen View Post
To anticipate Wilf's probable objection: yes, I know it is all about degrading the enemy's military capabilities and breaking their will. On the other hand, croquet, hockey, rugby, and the annual Gloucestershire Cheese Wheel rolling competition are all about scoring more objectives than your opponents do—and I'm not sure how far that commonality gets us if we're trying to win one of them
No objection here. My point is that you can only use military force to solve military problems. You cannot use it to solve social or political problems. Any army faced with an regular or irregular opponent, should focus on making the enemy incapable of gaining it's objective by violent means.

So in terms of croquet, hockey, rugby, and cheese rolling, you win by killing the other team, so they don't take part in the match. The playing the game is then left to your croquet, hockey, and rugby players, to go and win un-opposed, much to the delight of the crowd (the population).