Professional contingency planning is separate from political appetite for war. Staffs need rail timetables, transport requirements, and mobilization schedules worked out before a crisis because they cannot improvise them at the last moment. Britain and the United States could therefore war-game each other in the interwar period precisely because each navy was the other's most demanding theoretical opponent. War-plan archives reveal capability problems and strategic assumptions; they do not prove that leaders had decided on war.
Notable Point · 26:14-32:19
Why war plans are not evidence that leaders wanted war
Military staffs prepare logistics and contingency plans against even friendly powers; having a plan does not mean political leaders intend to use it.