[vbmoneyspender]

Smart leaders know that "supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting" - as Sun Tzu wrote years ago - and exhaust all other options before they unleash the dogs of war.

I'm sorry, I am not really up on my Chinese history but did Sun Tzu have any experience with weapons of mass destruction when he wrote his how-to several thousand years ago?

[Prodigal Son]

Nice point. I guess if Sun Tzu had known about nukes his book would've been a few chapters shorter.

[ampat]

We could do more short of war such as isolating IRAQ in more ways. However, then we have to deal with starving the civilian population more than they are being starved now. Our real goal is to oust Sad'um. In most "normal" countries, the thought of the overwhelming force of US power would be enough to "break their will to resist". And the government in question would give in. However, Sad'um is a dictator, and there is no government to give in.

[finnman69]

The Art of War Sun Tzu

[PsyOp]

Hack is very selective in his use of Sun Tzu. In an earlier article of his he used Sun to back his position a bit more heavily. I took him to task with a few Sun Tzu quotes of my own. If you're interested, here's the link to that thread.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/753154/posts

[Polybius]

I'm sorry, I am not really up on my Chinese history but did Sun Tzu have any experience with weapons of mass destruction when he wrote his how-to several thousand years ago?

No. Back then, war progressed and campaigns were fought at glacial speed and a 20 foot stone wall surrounding a city provided impregnable protection.

Hackworth might have been a good infantryman in his time but he is no strategist.

As I recall, during Desert Shield, he was predicting World War One style catastrophy in the coming Gulf War I.

I think I may still have one of his gloom and doom articles in an old Newsweek from that Gulf War period. I'll try to dig it up.