Looks like a touchdown to me.
Tech physically outplayed OU most of the game.
Also note the strength of schedule ratings: Tech #14, Bama #54.
As far as the Big 12 sucking: they've been doing pretty darn good in the bowl games so far.
Posted on 12/30/2005 3:12:56 PM PST by Congressman Billybob
Even political junkies like me take breaks from news and the Internet. In the middle of a football break, I realized the football analogy is false for American politics. So, I reread Sun Tzu’s “Art of War” and wrote this column.
Sun Tzu wrote that all warfare depends on deception. There is some deception in football. Occasionally it controls the outcome. I remember acutely a game that my high school lost in 1959, because I was deceived on the same play, twice.
Both times, the opposing quarterback faked a handoff but then pitched wide to the halfback who ran for a touchdown. As the defensive tackle, containment on that side was my responsibility. Both times, I put a bone-rattling tackle on the fullback, who did not have the ball. In my own defense, I played without glasses or contacts. I could not see the ball, so I tackled the man I thought had it. But enough of former triumphs.
Opportunities for deception in football are limited. The field is defined. The rules are enforced. Time is limited by the clock. Those restraints don’t apply in warfare or politics. There are no limits on the opportunities for deception. As Sun Tzu wrote, with deception an able commander can defeat even a stronger enemy.
There is a second, overwhelming difference between football and warfare. In football, every play is designed to defeat the plans of the opponent. In warfare and politics, the goal is not to win every possible confrontation. It is to win in the end, regardless of how many small defeats are inflicted along the way.
Apply Sun Tzu’s lessons to a certain public policy success of the Bush Administration over the Democrats, now. First, a dose of Sun Tzu’s “Art of War,” written two millenia ago:
Any military operation takes deception as its basic quality. A commander who is competent should pretend to be incompetent, he who is ready to use military force should pretend to delay his action;....
A good commander must offer a bait to allure the enemy who covets small advantages, capture the enemy when he is in disorder, take precautions against the enemy who has good preparation and substantial strength, evade for a time the enemy while he is strong, enrage the enemy who is hot-tempered, pretend to be weak in order to make the enemy arrogant or haughty, wear the enemy out if he has taken a good rest, set one party against another within the enemy if they are united. A commander must understand how to attack where the enemy is unprepared, and hit when it is unexpected. All the above-mentioned is the key to military victory, but it is never possible to formulate a fixed plan beforehand.
Look at the massive defeat the Bush Administration has just inflicted on the Democrats, on the subject of intelligence-gathering in wartime. The Democrats made a huge issue of the “outing” of CIA employee, Valerie Plame. Skip all the points about whether she was even the kind of employee who COULD be outed. Prosecutor Fitzgerald seems to agree, since he hasn’t charged anyone with outing her.
Pushing that issue, that hard, for so long, put the Democrats in an indefensible position concerning the revelation by the New York Times of the NSA program of interception of electronic communications between Al Qaeda suspects overseas and people in the US (who may or may not be US citizens).
By their own choice of prior tactics, the Democrats are in the weakest possible position to complain about the release of secret information to the media. A long series of Democrat attacks had (apparently) weakened the Bush Administration. Democrats and the press made much of the “declining poll numbers” for President Bush. But it is not the objective of any competent President to maintain high poll numbers. It is to accomplish his set purposes.
For a time, President Bush “looked” weak. Now the Democrats are hoist by their own petard. What does Sun Tzu say about that? “Pretend to be weak in order to make the enemy arrogant or haughty.” On this issue, as on many before, the Democrats have worked themselves into a losing position, by underestimating Bush. He has used their tendency to attack, all times and all fronts, against them
The Democrats are worse than I was on that football field 46 years ago. They have been defeated more than twice by the same tactic. And they lack the excuse that they couldn’t see it coming..
This should not close without applying Sun Tzu’s admonitions to its obvious subject as well as its allegorical one. Most of the leading Democrats are clamoring for “a plan for victory in Iraq.” Here’s the 2,000-year-old answer: “It is never possible to formulate a fixed plan beforehand.”
About the Author: John Armor is a First Amendment attorney and author who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
Excellent column.
Most especially a second term President. What does he care about poll numbers. He cares about long term results.
More like:
If wish to beat 'em, Tzu 'em.
The old boy knew what he was talking about.
From the link:
“Like, the general is so strategic that the other guy just falls down from sheer lack of strategic advantage.” To him, this never happens.
I give you Ronald "Maximus" Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, along with a procession of over-the-hill before-they-started Soviet "leaders".
Tell it to Michigan and Oregon.
Oops, my #44 should have been a reply to perfect stranger's post 15.
huh?
Tell me again about the LSU\Miami game
I remember one of Muhammed Ali's final championship fights. He was old, he looked slow, and he stood there while his arrogant opponent danced around and punched him over and over, and took a terrible pounding for many agonizing minutes. Then out of the blue, BAM!!! He landed a knockout blow and won the fight.
Mention Monica, and I'd rather pass gas.
It's always good to know early that your predictions aren't coming to pass. :>)
Looks like a touchdown to me.
Tech physically outplayed OU most of the game.
Also note the strength of schedule ratings: Tech #14, Bama #54.
As far as the Big 12 sucking: they've been doing pretty darn good in the bowl games so far.
"Opportunities for deception in football are limited."
Just as in warfare, some coaches and teams rely more on speed or power than upon deception. Some teams try to combine these factors. Think about a good wishbone quarterback coming down the line working the triple option. I think Sun would approve.
"There is a second, overwhelming difference between football and warfare. In football, every play is designed to defeat the plans of the opponent."
I wouldn't go to far with this analogy without first defining 'defeat the plans of the enemy'. Not every play in football is designed to produce a touchdown or to win the game.
And if it's any consolation it sounds like you did your job. IIRC, the defensive end and the linebacker have the pitchman so they at least share the blame responsibility.
My point is that warfare is far less structured, and, of course, more important and more harmful. When you play for keeps, the rules go out the window.
John / Billybob
Thanks, CBB! Loved your perspective!
The golden-tongued keep on losing, but they are so intellectual. And so perplexed--aren't they smarter than Bush, who expresses himself so poorly in words? Aren't words everything? And if the intelligentsia are masters of words, why are they not masters of the world?
Vanity, vanity. Of any man in office I've ever seen, Bush is the most lacking in that most common of human frailties. He doesn't at all mind playing the buffoon, if the buffoon always wins.
Makes one think he's the product of his upbringing.
Acting as if war is like playing football is folly. I enjoyed playing football immensely in my day, don't get me wrong, but football is all out in the open and not at all serious.
"set one party against another within the enemy if they are united"
Has someone(s) done this in the U.S.A.?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.