So long as the opposing forces are at the outset approximately equal in numbers and moral and there are no flanks to turn, a long struggle for supremacy is inevitable.
Once the mass of the defending infantry become possessed of low moral, the battle is as good as lost.
The idea that a war can be won by standing on the defensive and waiting for the enemy to attack is a dangerous fallacy, which owes its inception to the desire to evade the price of victory.
Further, a defensive policy involves the loss of the initiative, with all the consequent disadvantages to the defender.
Obviously, the greater the length of a war the higher is likely to be the number of casualties in it on either side.
