Militarily, what's the difference between a goal, a strategy and a tactic?

Question

I've been hearing that Bush will announce a new strategy for Iraq. Is this something we want our enemies to know? I always assumed the military would keep these things secret.

Answer 1

The way you listed them: goal, strategy, and tactic, is in the exact order of increasing details. By that I mean: a goal is basically just a broad plan, or objective. Like, "our goal is to defeat the Iraqi insurgents." A strategy is a proposed way to physically do this, like: "We will increase troop strength and begin seek & destory mission into their strongholds in Sadr City." And finally, a tactic is the actual way the troops perform this, as is how many men are deployed, and where, and what weapons are used. The strategy can be made by politicians or commanding officers, but the plans are usually made only by military personnel on the sight, and the tactics are made at company and unit level. Again, it's all in increasing detail.

Answer 2

A goal is political. There are no military goals to speak of although I am sure many may phrase it that way.

Strategy is the big picture. When you speak of strategy, think of big sweeping arrows on a map that show countries and depict where the large units are only and how they will operate, i.e. - a Newsweek magazine or Time magazine chart at the beginning of the war that speculates on how the units will move. Strategy will usually take into account national and international considerations for the actors involved.

Tactics are the lower level operational plans. These plans are usually made after the strategic plan is announced and they are made at lower levels by the guys/girls on the ground who will be doing the fighting with weapons in their hands. The battles you often read about as a civil war buff were tactical plans, not strategic ones.

When Bush says he is going to announce his strategy for Iraq at this point, I doubt very much there will be a great deal of military strategy, but it will largely be strategy that lays the outline for how to get out without losing face or causing a power vacuum. Military strategies are often secret, but they are usually so general in nature that they can be surmised pretty easily. Tactics on the other hand are almost always secret but they can be gathered by watching military units train and by following individual commanders and their careers.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

A tactic is a specific action or set of actions you use in battle, generally at the small unit level. Using IEDs is a tactic, ambushing is a tactic, ect. A strategy is a set of plans to win a conflict. For example, trying to find and kill or arrest those emplace IEDs is a strategy. A goal is your desired endstate. A peaceful Iraq for example.

Also, between the tactical and strategic levels is the "operational level. This is everything that encompasses the movement, plans and training in a theater of war. Please note that there is a lot of gray area between the three. It's best to imagine them on a color line, where there is no sharp dividing line, but they blend together gradually. Some actions could arguably be either a tactic or a strategy, or both at the same time. This is why military command is an art as well as a science; the "art" comes in correctly applying the "science" of warfare.

As for keeping it secret, we do keep some details secret, especially at the operational level, but the enemy will see tactics used and learn instantly, and in Iraq there is no central command to react to our strategy, so there is arguably little harm in releasing it. Besides, the detailed military strategy will be kept secret , as is common practice. Bush will just announce the overall thrust of the strategy.

P.S. It doesn't matter what strategy we use, we need to get out.

Answer 4

Right. It depends on the context. Usually a goal is the end result. In Iraq, our GOAL is to have a stable, democratic country with a starbucks on every block.
the STRATEGY is how we plan on doing it. Thats what Bush will hopefully finally figure out (ex more troops, less troops, more agressive etc)
The TACTICS are usually a little more covert. Thats what methods we'll use militarily. It can refer to big theater wide things or simple infantry tactics. That all depends on the context.

Unfortunately, nothing we do is going to fix that place. They've been killing each other for a thousand years and they will be doing it for another 1000. Saddam may have been ruthless, but none of this crap went on when he was boss. Unfortunatelt, some people need to be ruled with an iron fist. I'm hoping Bush's strategy will involve some *** kicking, as thats all these people seem to understand....

Answer 5

OK,theres also a term called "doctrine"

GOAL
Goal means objective,It was the allies goal to defeat the germans in WWII,
STRATEGY,
One of the strategys employed by the allies was to bomb the living daylights out of german production,thus destroying the germans ability to fight.
TACTICS
Tactics are more concerned with things like how a group of soldiers might employ themselves and the methodolegy on the battlefield,tactics affect doctrine.
DOCTRINE
Doctrine affects tactics,
Doctrine is a belief on how things should be done,Example:doctrine might dictate that prior to an attack a town should be softened up first with artillery before the soldiers go in,
It could be as simple as for example that an army group moving forward has recon elements scouting ahead followed by armour then infantry then artillery followed by signal and supplies.Its a practice.

Example.
During the irish war of independance the goal was to get the english out of ireland,The strategy was to prevent the english from being able to police ireland and thus make english influence in ireland ineffectual.
Hit and run tactics were employed,an english convoy would be ambushed with grenade and rifle and the irish would disappear into the background again.
Doctrine had the irish hiding in bushes,crossing fields at night,hiding weapon caches,spying on and timeing english movements etc.

Answer 6

Goal is the overall military objective

Strategy is the high level plan on how that will be achieved a command level

tactic is the implimentation of the strategy on the ground

C in Cs set goals , officers strategize and grunts put the tactics into play.

Answer 7

Good question. A goal is the desired result. A strategy is a plan by which you achieve a goal. And a tactic is the means by which you execute the strategy. Allow me to elaborate but please don't take the following example seriously I am just trying to simplify things a bit.

Goal: Victory and Peace in Iraq
Strategy: Divide and Conquer
Tactic: Kill everyone and anything that resists and beat them into submission.

You are right the military would like to keep these things secret. Politicians don't actually give real strategies or say anything substantial. 99.999999% of what they say is nothing but lies to make us peasants think they are doing their job. Entertain no.

Answer 8

A goal is an end result, an objective you want to achieve. Example: A peaceful and self-governing Iraq that will be our friend, not our enemy.

Strategy: A broad , general program to achieve a goal. Example: get the Iraqi Army well trained so they'll be able to replace our troops in the defense of their country; making it peaceful and self governing.

Tactic: Specific, detailed manner to achieve a strategy. Example: Increase the number of US advisers/trainers in each Iraqi unit so that the Iraqi Army will get trained more properly and timely.

The source I listed below defines those terms this way:" Strategy may be defined as the general scheme of the conduct of a war, tactics as the planning of means to achieve strategic objectives"

Answer 9

A strategy is a plan in advance to reach a goal.
A goal is an objective or target.
A tactic is a procedure, a method of operation or a maneuver.

I think the strategy he will be discussing will be regarding deployment and not a battle plan.

Answer 10

Strategy is the overall plan...say bring peace to Iraq.

A tactic is how you get there and that is the SECRET. For instance, we will deploy these troops on this particular location and do this.

A goal is within a tactic; take that building and then the next one.

The same deal works in business.

Good question.