There's a saying that helps define the concept of tactics: "Amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics."

This points out the difference between saying what you will do and having the resources to actually do it. It is extremely easy to point at a situation and say what you would do. The hard thing is to organize the means to implement your plan of action.

For example, everyone points at the brilliant tactical maneuver called the "left hook" that American military forces performed during Operation Desert Storm. What almost everyone forgets is the months-long buildup (which was called Desert Shield) that put the troops there in the first place. I vividly remember driving onto Rhein-Main Air Base during the buildup phase and seeing 8 or 10 C-5 Galaxy heavy airlifters lined up on the runway. No matter when I arrived, day or night, week after week, month after month, they were there, flying in empty and flying out carrying most of the 3rd Infantry Division, 1st and 2nd Armored Divisions, and a lot of the VII Corps, among other units. The tactics of Desert Storm would never have worked without the logistics of Desert Shield.

Strategic considerations were also a significant factor. It was a major strategic error on the part of Saddam Hussein to act uppity right at a time when the American Mililtary was sitting around with a couple of heavy divisions it didn't know what to do with. Almost all of the units used in Desert Storm were scheduled to be disbanded in the wake of the drawdown following the end of the Cold War. If America hadn't had those assets free to move, it would have been much more difficult to prosecute the Gulf War.

(Then again, some think that America deliberately baited Hussein for that reason. April Glaspie (our ambassador there) had basically shrugged off Saddam's threats against Kuwait at the time, which emboldened him to attack Kuwait to gain the port access that Iraq wanted and the Kuwaitis would not provide. By attacking when he did, America had all the soon-to-be-disbanded troops from the European theater to use against him instead of having to shift assets from other missions. But that's another story...)

Also, the ability to easily navigate in open desert without landmarks is a strategic advantage, given to the Army by the existence of the Global Positioning System (GPS) . That and other force multipliers such as smart bombs allowed American troops to use tactics that were previously impossible to implement.

Strategy deals with the ability to create and address long-term goals, logistics deals with material, and tactics deals with how you use them on the scene to accomplish the strategic goals.