Historians like to tally victories for their own sake, like league standings or stock market prices. Combat commanders have a more pragmatic perspective on the consequences of battles. It is not the volume of the enemy's hardware destroyed nor the number of his men killed that matters. What makes the difference is a battle's impact on the will to fight, and on the ability to impose one's will on an enemy in the future. Victory in in the mind, not the metal.
(from Neptune's Inferno, by James D. Hornfischer)
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