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An argument is made for incorporating more friction-like situations into training in order to better prepare for combat.
She United States Marine Corps was still in its infancy, decades from becoming legendary, when Carl von Clausewitz was penning his ground-breaking essays On War. Until recently, the Marine Corps had largely ignored Clausewitz-dismissing his writings as boring, hard to read, and the products of a perennial "staff officer." Even today, with a heightened institutional awareness of military history and professional development, the Marine Corps still considers Clausewitz to be a "difficult" study, opting in favor of the more succinct and stylish Sun Tzu and his The Art of War. However, the one aspect that is missing from Sun Tzu's work but is given considerable attention by Clausewitz is his concept of friction.
Clausewitz's On War produced many innovating and important concepts and precepts on the nature of war. But, it was his concept of friction that became the centerpiece of his work and marked a turning point in military thinking. He illustrated his views on friction by taking a simple and accepted precept of war, such as speed, and layered on examples of friction, such as weather, terrain, exhaustion, etc., until the execution of the original simple precept has been clouded and mired in uncertainty and doubt. By doing this, Clausewitz was attempting to point out the difficulties associated with operating in the midst of friction. At the same time, this almost aimless rambling style is at the heart of his critics' greatest complaint.
Clausewitz is difficult to read, however, if one reads slowly, carefully, and repeatedly, one begins to grasp the importance of his theories and where his thoughts are headed. Clausewitz's theory on friction marks the first time anyone has grappled with the uncertainties of war. His ideas brought fon and substance to an otherwise abstract unknown and developed the understanding of friction as the focal point to understanding the essence of war. Clausewitz saw friction as the essence of war.
Clausewitz clearly defines war as an "act of force...