No. 2: Avoid head-to-head battles that use up your manpower, your most precious asset.
No. 3. Prolong the war.
No. 4. Hope that the enemy would grow heartily sick of the casualties in a war that never seems to end.
There were some other Gen. Washington rules:
No. 5. The Revolution would continue as long as he had the Continental Army, which was the only real power he had.
No. 6. Thus, do not risk the army except in the most dire emergency or when the odds are heavily in your favor.
No. 7. Do not risk the army to defend territory because it is the army that the British have to subdue, not geography.
No. 8. Remember that most of the fighting will be in your territory in geography you know best. Frustrate the British by raids, continual skirmishing, and capturing their supplies, always staying just beyond their ability to defeat you.
Precisely the rules Michael Collins used in the Irish War of Independence!
During Washingtons Presidency he signed an treaty with England that many in the US viewed as simply giving back some of what we fought for during the Revolution, Washingtons view was that it was inevitable that a war between the US an a European power was inevitable, it was best that much like his fighting that the idea wasnt simply to go out and win battles, much like Lee thought, but it was to drag it out until either you have the manpower to win or the will of the enemy dictates that they wont.
Do "Uncle Ho" & General Giap strike a resonant cord? How about Sun Tzu? Fools rush in where angles fear to tread.
Regards,
GtG
PS The South was NEVER defeated, they're just resting up for the next round. (Northern by birth, Texan at heart)
1-4 have been adopted by Al Quida.