If you're not gonna pull the trigger, don't point the gun.
You talk to your enemies, not just your friends.
Sometimes you move publicly, sometimes privately. Sometimes quietly, sometimes at the top of your voice.
Never let the other fellow set the agenda.
Who could not be moved by the sight of that poor, demoralized rabble, outwitted, outflanked, outmanoeuvered by the U.S. military? Yet, given time, I think the press will bounce back.
Sometimes an active policy is best advanced by doing nothing until the right time - or never.