Dumbledore the General

[sevenhundredandthirteen]

No: HPFGUIDX 124241


Dumbledore's strategy is to get the Wizarding World to engage
Voldemort and his allies in open war as soon as possible. He *does
not* want the conflict to remain hidden and secret. He does not want
acts of terror, he wants outright war.

He informs students, the Ministry and the world as soon as Voldemort
returns. He doesn't waste time with minor nuisances like blocking
Death Eater's bank accounts because all that will do will buy the Dark
Side more time. The longer it takes for open war to be declared, the
more foolish Dumbledore appears. The longer it takes, the easier it is
for the world to right him off as senile and ignore his 'warnings.'

Dumbledore's tactics involve espionage and defence. His advice to
befriend the Giants and Dementors is less about getting them to fight
for him and more about stopping them from joining Voldemort. He guards
the Prophecy instead of destroying it. He obviously doesn't believe
the small Order of the Phoenix will be able to muster a strong enough
offence on Voldemort. For that he needs the support of the entire
Ministry of Magic and Wizarding World.

Maybe his apparent lack of offensive strategy is just a strategic way
of bringing the war out into the open sooner.

His defence of the Department of Mysteries encourages the Dark Side to
attack. And on Ministry soil at that. That's a good plan as any for
starting an open war.

The longer the war is secret, the more opportunities Voldemort has for
planting spies, the more opportunities Voldemort has for putting the
Imperius Curse on people in positions of power, the more willing
support Voldemort can muster, the more people he can blackmail and
bribe to help his.

Dumbledore' objective tries to minimise all this. He wants open war so
that the world is expecting Voldemort to do all these things. He wants
open war so Voldemort can't sneak in slowly and steadily.

Sure, speeding up open war doesn't assist the personal battle between
Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort. It decreases Harry's chances. But
Voldemort cares about more than just killing Harry. Although he spent
OotP pursuing Harry as his main aim, world domination is still his
ultimate goal.

Dumbledore must realise that although it has been prophesised that
Harry can defeat Voldemort, there is no prophecy that declares that
Harry can single-handedly end the war.

The longer the war remains secret, the stronger the allies of the Dark
Side become and hence the harder to defeat. But, the stronger Harry
becomes the greater his chance to defeat Voldemort one-on-one.

The quicker war comes out into the open, the weaker the Dark Allies
and hence the easier to defeat. But, the weaker HP is, the smaller his
chance to defeat Voldemort.

It's a tough choice. But, as we know from VWI, the war didn't end at
Godric's Hollow. Bellatrix Lestrange and Co. were still at large doing
their worst. Even if Voldemort is defeated properly this time,
Bellatrix and the rest of the Dark Army will still be out there.

So, Dumbledore wants war *now* but he also wants to put off the
Harry-Voldemort confrontation until the last possible minute- the
minute when the war is just about over, the Dark Allies are defeated
and only the evil King Pin remains. 

I bet JKR wants the same thing for dramatic purposes.

I'm not disappointed his Dumbledore's overall military strategy. He
cannot defeat Voldemort's Armies by himself. He needs the Ministry of
Magic on his side for that. But because the MoM is in denial,
Dumbledore's only option is to make war come to them. 

And Harry was trained especially for his one-on-one battle with
Voldemort in OotP (Occlumency). Besides, Dumbledore is trying to
protect the boy and ensure that he can have a life after the war, not
turn him into a purpose built assassin.

~<(Laurasia)>~