Sun Tzu and the Art of US Political Madness

Here are some quotes from Sun Tzu's Art of War alongside some comments concerning America's failed war on terrorism:

There is no instance of a country having benefited
from prolonged warfare.

And yet, the US has been engaged in warfare for 9 years

In war, then, let your great object be victory,
not lengthy campaigns.

What is victory again in the war on terrorism? Oh wait, I should ask Bush this one.

the best
thing of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact;
to shatter and destroy it is not so good.

What did America do to Iraq? They caused it to descend into civil war. Even if they have the oil fields, it won't do them much good with terrorists waiting to take back the occupied land.

Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles
is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists
in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.

Is The US breaking the enemy's resistance? Or are they in fact giving the taliban a stronger reason to keep on fighting?

To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our
own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy
is provided by the enemy himself.

In other words: insanity will defeat itself. The nation is crumbling, and as Jimmy Carter has said, America is now more divided than during the civil war. The amount of political corruption is destroying the nation, and so there is really not much else that is needed but to let the enemy destroy themselves.

Sun Tzu said: Raising a host of a hundred thousand
men and marching them great distances entails heavy loss
on the people and a drain on the resources of the State.
The daily expenditure will amount to a thousand ounces
of silver. There will be commotion at home and abroad,
and men will drop down exhausted on the highways.

Deploying 30,000 troops additional troops to Afghanistan to have them march around can only have one effect: to destroy the resources of the state, that is, the state of America, not Afghanistan.

This is a great thread.
I really enjoy the works of Sun Tzu!
Have you seen the documentary on the History channel?
topdocumentaryfilms.com...

Originally posted by Romantic_Rebel
This is a great thread.
I really enjoy the works of Sun Tzu!
Have you seen the documentary on the History channel?
topdocumentaryfilms.com...

No I have not, thanks for the link. I made this thread because I used a Sun Tzu quote on a different threat and found so many additional quotes to compare with that I decided to make one dedicated just to the war on terrorism.

reply to post by filosophia


America needs to learn more from Sun Tzu. Seems we all been going down hill since the Vietnam War.

reply to post by Romantic_Rebel


I agree. I'm sure some die hard statists will argue with me on this point, but WW 2 was the last war the USA won. Everything after that has been a military loss (Except Iraq of course ha ha).

reply to post by filosophia


Well we have one small battles. Wars on the other hand have been ugly. America is the current empire and soon the People's Republic of China will be in control of the world.