Yet confusing them with words alone is a difficult task. In mass societies, commanders are the instruments that translate the will of those to whom they report into the duties of those they command. The commander neither originates the ends, nor, in theory, allows personal considerations to get in the way of optimizing military decisions. A good commander should be able to transcend unnecessary emotion and proceed directly to the tasks at hand. Confusion and disorientation are cognitive as well as emotional states.
Commanders make decisions on the basis of unexpected events.
Contemplating an assortment of possibilities necessarily detracts from contemplating deeply those presumably probable. If so, among otherwise comparable courses of action, logic would seem to favor the course that would exacerbate differences between what the other side expects to see and what it actually sees. If the opposing commander is confident that a parachute- led assault against him would fail, being wrong could force him to rethink the assumptions of his strategy. The decision to adopt a strategy that trades immediate outcomes for increased confusion depends on how data affect the other side. Note 34 is an important part of information warfare.