Bait and bleed
Bloodletting: Mearsheimer describes a similar strategy which he calls "bloodletting", which does not involve incitement or baiting by a third party. When a state's rivals have already gone to war independently, the aim is to encourage the conflict to continue as long as possible to let the rival states weaken or "bleed" each other's military strength, while the bloodletting party stays out of the fighting.
This strategy is exemplified in United States senator Harry S. Truman's statement in 1941 regarding the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and its allies, Italy, Hungary, Finland, and Romania: "If we see that Germany is winning, we ought to help Russia, and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I don't want to see Hitler victorious under any circumstances."

See also: Attrition warfare
Divide and rule
John J. Mearsheimer
Power politics
Realism in international relations
Realpolitik
Perfidious Albion
Stalin's speech of 19 August 1939


== References ==