system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Star Wars: The Clone Wars] Why are the Separatists mostly fighting offensively? Aren't they seceding? Shouldn't they be protecting their territory?

Are Grievous and Dooku just bad strategists?
gpt
Grievous and Dooku are intentionally bad. Palpatine/Darth Sidious wanted them to fail on purpose because he didn't want the Confederacy to break free. He wanted a unified galaxy.

It's also possible that the Confederacy are fighting an offensive war to force the Republic to sue for peace. This might be an allusion to Robert E. Lee's Northern campaign in the American Civil War. Rush for the capital (Coruscant), take it, and then force the Republic to sue for peace. But the first explanation also makes sense.