What is Digg?3 Comments
- iching, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Now to win the 'new' war on chaos and stay the course.
But what comes out of chaos?
Sun Tzu's Art of War Ignored:
Who benefits from this confusion, according to Sun Tzu? The enemy? Actually, neighboring rulers benefit. Can anyone spell "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?"
"One who is confused in purpose cannot respond to his enemy... If the army is confused and suspicious, neighboring rulers will cause trouble. This is what is meant by the saying: 'A confused army leads to another's victory...'" (Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Offensive Strategy: 23).
Ignorance is deadly. The Bush-era military, desperate for cannon fodder, lowered standards and reached down to younger recruits. With no Arabic language training and no sense of Iraqi culture, the military asks teenagers to police a hostile, foreign culture - for the four reasons offered by the Party.
"When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If ignorant of both your enemy and yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril" (Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Offensive Strategy: 84).
Cruelty backfires. Neo-cons insist that we are fighting a "war" on terror but that the enemy does not have "soldiers" (only "terrorists"). This kind of "war" - without real "soldiers" on the other side that is - opens the door to the kinds of human rights abuses seen at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib.
Sun Tzu would likely say that if the "war on terror" was really a "war," then this universal rule would apply:
"Treat captives well, and care for them. All the soldiers taken must be cared for with magnanimity and sincerity so that they may be used by us" (Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Waging War: 19).
By all accounts, however, Guantanamo and the Iraq occupation inspired the Madrid and London bombings. Violating Sun Tzu's rule has consequences.
Eternal war is suicide. The neo-con "generations-long war," "Hundred Years War," or "Crusade," is nothing but a blunder. Sun-Tzu says:
http://www.virtualcitizens.com/article.php?shorttitle=SunTzuRulesofWar - iching, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1
China's President Hu displayed a sense of humor in presenting the book, of all things, to George W. Bush on his recent visit to the United States. But we know that Bush did not have it on his summer reading list.
Perhaps his advisers can slip Sun Tzu's maxims into the daily digest. After, say, the latest slaughter between Sunni and Shiite factions, an aide could read:
"Without knowing the plans of the feudal lords, you cannot form alliances."
Then tell him to read Page 10:
"In war, better take a state intact than destroy it."
Also a critique of his plan to recall reservists for more tours:
"The skillful warrior never conscripts troops a second time." And, "Supplying an army at a distance drains the public coffers. ... Six-tenths are spent on broken chariots, worn-out horses."
That last is archaically put, but don't we have thousands of war-wrecked Humvees and tanks now - while short of funds to fix them?
This book is required reading at most US War Colleges but you know Rumsfeld,
he never listens to anyone, especially his Generals. - Dopamini, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Sun Tzu never filled out energy/oil contracts with the DoD. They might have listened to him if he did.
Browsing Digg on your phone just got easier with our enhancements to the 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is