I don't think Nelson would agree with your post .... if I remember correctly he was "blowing in the air" after Napoleon for nine months until the Battle of the Nile ..... I've got to go to bed .... to be continue....besides doesn't Rumsfeld still think there is no insurgency? Stumbling into that strategy by accident is not strategy....
Remember, that post was Corbett's dictum. I can't take credit for it.
Corbett would point out that Nelson was "blowing in the air" until the French fleet stopped at the strategic point of Aboukir Bay. The French made Nelson come to them at a prepared position. Be that as it may, and although the French out-gunned the British, Nelson's superior tactics prevailed.
Corbett cited a previous Mediterranean chase:
"....in 1704, Admiral Sir George Rooke was unable to seek out the Toulun fleet but, by seizing Gibraltar, he made it come to him".
Corbett did step on quite a few Royal Navy toes by daring to criticize Nelson, the Royal Navy's minor deity.
Corbett believed that Nelson's statement that he would be willing to see his fleet destroyed if he could cripple the French fleet in the process was highly irresponsible.
Corbett pointed out that, while a Continental land power had a fleet as a luxury and could take extreme risks with it as it was not vital to survival, a maritime nation such as Britain that depended on its fleet for its very survival could not afford to risk the destruction of that fleet in a cavalier fashion.