"If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival." ― Winston Churchill, The Gathering Storm
Pursuit is perhaps one of the most difficult principles of war to consistently apply. More often than not, people fight to the point of defeating their enemies, not to the point of seeing their principles established. Men argue and fight for the sake of destroying their foe's premises, but they fall short of proving their own.
"Failure to pursue frequently reveals that the objective in the campaign was not victory, but rather some version of the 'upper hand.' Once we have fought to the point where we might be left alone for a while, we stop. This often happens because Christians are peace-loving people, and this sometimes gets them into trouble. Too often we drag a problem out and make the whole thing last ten times longer than it has to last. But when the principle of pursuit is employed, it is clear that victory is the objective." ― Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers
Too many settle for the upper hand when they should be striving to have their arms raised in victory. We do not fight when we should because we like peace. Peace is good and it should be preferred to war as a goal, but it should be be picked over war in practice. We must fight for peace, not forfeit peace by refusing to fight. We must wage peace.
"We are not to fight to the point of predominance, we are to fight to the point of complete victory... Pursuit is the principle neglected by the currently strong. Many wars have been prolonged because the victorious army did not press its advantage in the immediate aftermath of a critical battle." ― Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers
It is easy to enjoy a victory than it is to keep fighting. It is easier to settle for lesser peace than it is to strive for peach on earth. In this, however, we prove that the love of our neighbor an enemy is not part of our calculus. If it were, we would push harder in order to put an end to the possibility of future wars. We would not kick the can down the road to fight another day, we would rise to our full height and fight now in order to put an end to all the fighting.
"Willingness to pursue when pursuit is a possibility reveals, like nothing else reveals, what the true objective was. An unwillingness to pursue is equally revelatory." ― Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers
Our refusal to fight when victory is near is an indictment against us. We do not want to win, but we do want to pop some champagne in the winner's circle.
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