ABSTRACT
War is dangerous; it is a realm of suffering, confusion, exhaustion, and fear. The march of technological progress is increasing both the causes and the impact of friction on the battlefield. It is the task of intelligence officers to evaluate the information, corroborate reports, and provide a composite picture of the battle or war appropriate to the needs of the commander. The impact of any single individual's mistake can be far greater in a war today than was the case in Carl von Clausewitz's time. These are the factors that create what Clausewitz termed friction, thus introducing the word into our modern usage as a permanent element of the social machine. His identification of friction as the element that most distinguished war from other social activities was based on the premise that the principle element of warfare is not weaponry but man. The Soviet Armed Forces became the real heirs of Clausewitz.
