The penny or the bun: strategies for enlargement

There is a well-known saying that generals always fight the last war; seldom the present war and never the next war. Because generals tend to be conscientious and prudent, they take time to learn lessons from past wars. The lessons become received wisdom - a textbook for future operations - yet often by the time the textbook is applied events have moved on.

The Irish author Bernard Shaw makes this point in his play 'Arms and the Man,' in which he satirises the notion of military correc...