Selection & Maintain of Aim

The most important principle of war is 'Selection & Maintain of Aim' ('aim' for Brits, 'objective' for Americans).

An example of Hitler failing to maintaining his war aim (after correctly selecting it as the destruction of Britain's air power) was when in a fit of anger at a British bomber bombing Berlin - actually by accident through erroneous navigation than by intent - he switched from bombing the RAF airfields and radar stations to bombing London in what became known as thw London Blitz.

Though he devastated London but without affecting the morale of the British people, he unwittingly spared the RAF enough time to recover and re-group for the famous Battle of Britain in which the RAF won against superior German Luftwaffe.

Had Hitler maintained his aim of destroying the RAF there would not have been a Battle of Britain, where after, on 20 August 1940, PM Winston Churchill eulogised the RAF with his famous 'Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few'.

The 'few' were the valorous RAF fighter pilots and has since become their signature word of pride.

Wikipedia informs us: Churchill apparently first used his famous words upon his exit from the Battle of Britain Bunker at RAF Uxbridge on 16 August when visiting the No. 11 Group RAF Operations Room during a day of battle.

Afterwards, Churchill told Major General Hastings Ismay, 'Don't speak to me, I have never been so moved'.

After several minutes of silence he said, 'Never in the history of mankind has so much been owed by so many to so few'. The sentence would form the basis of his speech to the House of Commons on 20 August.

General Sir Hastings Ismay

However, in 1954 "Pug" Ismay related an anecdote to publisher Rupert Hart-Davis; when Churchill and Ismay were

travelling together in a car, in which Winston rehearsed the speech he was to give in the House of Commons on 20 August 1940 after the Battle of Britain. 

When he came to the famous sentence, ‘Never in the history of mankind have so many owed so much to so few’, Ismay said 'What about Jesus and his disciples?'

'Good old Pug,’ said Winston who immediately changed the wording to ‘Never in the field of human conflict ....'.

The speech was given as the United Kingdom prepared for the expected German invasion. In it, Churchill tried to inspire his countrymen by pointing out that although the last several months had been a series of monumental defeats for the Allies, their situation was now much better than before.

Churchill's argument was in fact correct; shortly thereafter the British won the battle, the first significant defeat for the hitherto unstoppable Wehrmacht.

The German Wehrmacht or “defence force” was the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1946

This speech was a great inspiration to the embattled United Kingdom during what was probably its most dangerous phase of the entire war. Together with the three famous speeches that he gave during the period of the Battle of France (the "Blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech of 13 May, the "We shall fight on the beaches" speech of 4 June and the "This was their finest hour" speech of 18 June), they form his most stirring rhetoric.

Yes, selection & maintenance of aim would also be the primary principle of political war that now rages between BN and Pakatan.

But what is the respective aim of BN and Pakatan?

For BN in Penang, it seems to be unending and frankly, quite boring attacks on alleged corruption in Pakatan state government's management of the undersea tunnel project.

I am sorry to tell the BN that its aim is incorrect as no one in Penang, save the BN converted, believes in MCA or Gerakan's corruption allegation against Guan Eng on the tunnel project.

A political war can be won by positive actions rather than just negative attacks, which seems to be the standard fare for both sides. Actually a positive action to the liking of the voters would be akin to a successful (but positive) attack over the opponent.

Can BN do something positive rather than chant the standard tale of the tunnel?

What about promising, promoting and propagating the government's recognition of the UEC, that is, assuming MCA and Gerakan can get Najib to agree to that, wakakaka.

Striving for excellence: To ensure students can enter local public universities if they want to, many Chinese schools compel students to sit for both the national SPM examination and the UEC exam.

I have no doubt that BN will win more than a few votes from the more senior Chinese, especially from parents of students. The UEC would be a more appreciated issue than the boring repetitive and useless attacks on the tunnel.

As for Pakatan its chant seems to be 1MDB and Najib but more at Najib. The chant looks like fading away as the figures quoted keeps changing, from RM42 Billion to RM2.6 Billion to some hundreds of millions to RM60 Billion to etc etc etc Billions. To be truthful, I am getting confused.

The target has been a personal pointing at Najib, just as the BN in Penang makes a particular issue of anything Guan Eng, wakakaka. The converted on one's side loves it while the converted on the other side ignores it, a stalemate so to speak. Both sides have indulged in negatives.

For a positive, at one time, PAS' 'welfare state' looked pretty good but to our disappointment, we finally learnt it was just another PAS' bullshit.

Pakatan should consider taking it up - just dust off the green paint and give it another name (but please not Mahathir-nomics, wakakaka). I reckon it'll be good as it's a positive.

wakakaka 

Also, how about cheaper housing, better and more government-run or government-sponsored child care centres, something for the age, etc etc etc along this line of lower cost of living and enhanced lifestyles?

Select your political campaign aim correctly, then maintain it. But avoid negatives - we're getting bored of that.