Posted on 04/19/2009 7:11:15 PM PDT by TenthAmendmentChampion
The Six Principles from Sun Tzu and the Art of Modern Warfare
“The United States faces many potential adversaries, both in the form of nation states and terrorist organizations. Each day, as technology progresses, the ability of these adversaries to inflict harm on the U.S. military units, national infrastructure, or civilians increases.” (p187)
So writes Mark McNeilly in chapter seven, “Ancient Principles for Future Battlefields,” of his new book, Sun Tzu and the Art of Modern Warfare.
http://www.suntzu1.com/content/sun_tzu_and_the_art_of_modern_warfare/
Using historical examples that span the centuries, McNeilly applies the six principles he developed from Sun Tzu's classic treatise on strategy, The Art of War, to help the reader understand this ancient wisdom's relevance to modern warfare. The examples cover the range and breadth of warfare. From terrorist attacks on the US to counter-terrorist actions such as the Israeli raid on Entebbe to rescue hijacked passengers. From the use of guerillas and irregular forces in Viet Nam and the American revolution to full-scale conventional warfare in both world wars, the Persian Gulf war, and others.
McNeilly's six principles are: 1. Win All Without Fighting: Achieving the Objective Without Destroying It 2. Avoid Strength, Attack Weakness: Striking Where the Enemy is Most Vulnerable 3. Deception and Foreknowledge: Winning the Information War 4. Speed and Preparation: Moving Swiftly to Overcome Resistance 5. Shaping the Enemy: Preparing the Battlefield 6. Character-Based Leadership: Leading by Example
The first principle, Win All Without Fighting: Achieving the Objective Without Destroying It, discusses the goal of strategy (covered in Chapter 1). Many city-states, countries, and empires have been built by leaders who leveraged their nation's unique history, geography, and assets to control that state's environment and sphere of influence. Thus, these leaders were able to ensure their states' ability to survive, become stable, expand, dominate their neighbors, and ultimately prosper for hundreds of years.
The Roman Empire grew from a small area surrounding Rome to extend from Britain to the Black Sea to Egypt to what would in the future be known as Gibraltar. It lasted over five hundred years. The Mongol Empire began with a single nomadic tribe in central Asia but grew to rule lands from China to India to Europe. And, of course, the sun never set on the British Empire for several centuries.
The goal of all these empires has been, like a living organism, to first survive, then to prosper. Today that goal remains for all countries, first to survive as an entity, and then to become prosperous.
If the goal of a country is to survive and prosper, then what is the goal of its strategy? Sun Tzu offers this advice:
Your aim must be to take All-under-Heaven intact. Thus your troops are not worn out and your gains will be complete. This is the art of offensive strategy.
The second principle is an important tenet of this philosophy: avoid strength, attack weakness. This principle discusses how to win All-under-Heaven intact.
Now an army may be likened to water, for just as flowing water avoids the heights and hastens to the lowlands, so an army avoids strength and strikes weakness.
Although many generals prefer to attack each other head-on, this approach is very costly. As discussed earlier, wars of attrition can last for months and even years, leaving both sides in a weakened state. Instead, using the method of avoiding strength and attacking weakness maximizes one's gains while minimizing the use of the nation's resources. This, by definition, increases prosperity. This principle is discussed in detail in Chapter 2, Avoid Strength, Attack Weakness: Striking Where The Enemy Is Most Vulnerable.
To find and exploit an enemy's weakness requires a deep understanding of their leaders' strategy, capabilities, thoughts, and desires and a similar depth of knowledge of one's own strengths and weaknesses. It is critical to study the minds of the opposing generals and understand how they will react to one's moves. It is also important to understand the environment and terrain which will be contested.
Therefore I say, “Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril.”
It also demands a corresponding masking of one’s plans.
All warfare is based on deception.
Chapter 3, Deception and Foreknowledge: Winning the Information War, sheds light on these topics. To fully utilize deception and foreknowledge effectively, it is critical to be able to act with blinding speed.
Speed is the essence of war. Take advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness; travel by unexpected routes and strike him where has taken no precautions.
To move with such speed does not mean to do things hastily. In reality, speed requires much preparation. Reducing the time it takes to make decisions, develop new weapons, implement strategies and respond to the enemy's moves is crucial. To think through and understand the opponent's reaction to one's possible moves also is essential.
To rely on rustics and not prepare is the greatest of crimes; to be prepared beforehand for any contingency is the greatest of Virtues.
Chapter 4, Speed and Preparation: Moving Swiftly To Overcome Resistance expands on these topics. Putting all these factors into play successfully does not occur naturally. One must be able to “shape” the enemy.
Therefore those skilled in war bring the enemy to the field of battle and are not brought there by him.
Shaping the enemy means changing the rules of the contest and making one's opponent conform to one's desires and actions. It means taking control of the situation away from the enemy and putting it into one's own hands. One way of shaping the enemy is by the skillful use of alliances. By building a strong web of alliances, the moves of the opponent can be limited. Also, by eliminating its alliances, one can weaken the enemy.
Look into the matter of his alliances and cause them to be severed and dissolved. If an enemy has alliances, the problem is grave and the enemy's position strong; if he has no alliances the problem is minor and the enemy's position weak.
By keeping plans and strategy closely held and using tactics to deceive the enemy about one's true intentions, one can continue to shape them by employing direct and indirect approaches
He who knows the art of the direct; (Cheng) and the indirect (Ch'i) approach will be victorious.
A direct attack is one that occurs in an expected place at an expected time. An indirect assault is one that comes as a surprise, both in location and timing. By combining direct attacks on the enemy to fix their leaders' attention and deceive them, one can then use indirect attacks to win complete victory. By utilizing the indirect and direct approaches and skillfully crafting alliances the opponent can be put on the defensive and made more vulnerable to future attacks. Chapter 5, Shape The Enemy: Preparing the Battlefield, tells more about this subject.
To achieve everything discussed so far takes a special kind of leader; one who can see the correct course of action and take it immediately, who can relate to the military forces, other civilian leaders and the population and gain commitment, who can empower subordinates to carry out the nation's strategy and who can use all personnel wisely. The attributes of this type of leader are discussed in detail in Chapter 6, Character-based Leadership: Leading by Example.
What can we take from this? What are our enemies' weaknesses?
Should we take this discussion private so as not to disclose our tactics? If so, what's a good way to do that? Yahoo Groups by invite only? private chat?
ping for later.
“Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril.”
I'm not sure the Republicans know who they are yet. They need to figure this out, pronto!
The enemy’s biggest weakness is that they are not on the side of truth. Another is that they are governed by their feeeeeelings. I try to keep on the offensive with the truth and get the enemy to respond with their injured feeeeeelings. Don’t let them start the discussion, and if they do, take charge of it, and watch them fall to pieces.
Also, I say we take a close look at the non violent, peaceful demonstrations that eventually brought down communist regimes in Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Budapest, and eventually Moscow, even with an impressive State Controlled media arrayed against People Power. Gandhi overturning the British also has some very instructive points. The bottom line is that we can REALLY get these folks at the ballot box in 2010, which is only next year, less than 8 months away, with repeated demonstrations and phone/fax/email barrage campaigns to buttress it.
There are many historic parallels here in our struggle to hold back European Socialism here in the US here folks, with the way Obama, Axelrod, CNN and Napolitano are behaving.
But we have our Lech Walesa's I am convinced. We need SON OF TEA PARTY, or TEA PARTY II (like the man in the American colonial three pointed cap said, folks) and in the next two months in my opinion.
We need to quietly build our armies without tipping our hands. We need to deceive the liberals that we are doing one thing while, in fact, doing something else.
We can exploit their weaknesses by knowing what they are and exploiting them. If they are afraid of our ability to organize counterattacks, we should keep them off balance by sending confusing signals and keeping them guessing and wasting energy on what we might do.
We also must do everything possible to divide them from their base and destroy any confidence in their leadership. We should organize protests at every turn and hold them publicly accountable for every negative event or public policy failure.
The essence of Sun Tzu's philosophy is you defeat the enemy's mind to defeat the enemy. You basically screw with his head until he doesn't know whether he's coming or going and whether you are coming or going, attacking or retreating.
Conservatives need to learn to be more unpredictable and surprising. The Palin candidacy threw the Obama campaign into a complete tailspin and we need to keep doing that to them day after day until they have no idea how to counter what we are doing.
Remember how Eisenhower kept the Germans guessing where the invasion of Europe would begin.
We can beat these liars and tyrants if we throw out the predictable RINO's who keep collaborating and betraying us and accept nobody into our ranks who will sell us out or betray our secret plans.
Good article.
Words to win by. Thanks for posting.
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Do be, Do be, Do ... I thought that was sinkEmperor clintoon and his White HOuse entourage.
One of the most effective tactics is to use the enemy’s own principles and procedures against him. Our enemies have done this with great success, using our national conscience and principles of law to destroy the very things those laws were meant to protect. In the case of the Left, the only real principles that they hold are those of political correctness. We should attack using accusations of racism, accusations of hurting the :working families”, doing it “for the children”, etc.
Wow, thank for the GGG ping, SC. That’s an honor!
In the simplest terms possible, there are two rules to successful strategy.
1) Attack your enemy where he is weak.
2) Get your enemy to attack you where you are strong.
“Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril.”
There’s always the unexpected. Always.
this was the first thing that crossed my mind in this regard. another is their willingness to do anything to accumulate power. Foolhardiness, I guess you might call it. And most of all, pride/arrogance. They will always underestimate their opponents because they are so prideful. (Pride goeth before a fall; and a haughty spirit before destruction.)
Dare I say that their greatest weakness is that they depend on themselves or Satan? If we depend on God, how can we lose?
Of course if we are in the End Times, then Satan will seem to win temporarily. We know how that turns out, too.
Mr Obama. Who Are You? Who was your father? Where were you born? How old are you? What is your REAL name? Why have you spent almost a million dollars to avoid showing us your birth certificate?
Ask him that every time he shows his face in public. Loudly. Set up a chant. The questions should follow him everywhere he goes. THAT is his weakness!
Thank you Quix!
You’re welcome WV.
The Rodents are power because they out hustled and out smarted us. Too many conservatives think, they can win just be being “pure of heart”. We need to develop effective tactics in order to win. As of right now, conservatives sink at tactics.
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