This article demonstrates “circuitous but intended outcomes”-or the desirable consequences accurately anticipated and predicted by the actors involved at the moment the act is carried out-in the case of the October 1973 Yom Kippur War between Israel and Egypt. This case provides a strong illustration of how an actor who wages war can circuitously achieve political goals despite suffering military defeat on the battleground. Egypt’s President Anwar al-Sadat astonishingly predicted the indirect results of the war he initiated. Sadat forecast that Egypt needed a spark-“crossing the canal and capturing just ten centimeters of Sinai”-which would trigger the involvement of much more powerful forces, such as the superpowers-and the United States in particular-leading them to successfully compel Israel to withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt’s desired goal.