The biggest problem was the politicians knew nothing about fighting a war.

In this remark, Ermey frames military failure less as a matter of troop performance than of civilian decision-making. The “biggest problem” is identified as a gap between political authority and battlefield reality: leaders who set objectives, rules of engagement, and timelines without firsthand understanding of combat’s constraints. The quote reflects a common veteran critique—especially associated with debates over Vietnam and later conflicts—that wars can be undermined by unclear goals, shifting policies, or micromanagement from afar. It also implies a tension inherent in democracies: civilians rightly control the military, yet effective strategy requires informed, realistic judgments about what fighting entails and what costs it imposes.