As much as I respect and honor our American Military their tactics sometimes just baffle me. I just read the Art of War by Sun Tzu and think his strategies on and off the battle field are just brilliant. Supposedly I’m not the only one. All the great commanders in battle have read him too and have followed some of his ideas, from Napoleon to Patton. So why today when our military gets baffled on how to do something don’t say, “hey, I know what we can do, let’s consult Sun Tzu’s Art of War! I have a copy back in my office.” Our boys and girls in the bureau should have done this when wondering what to do with terrorists they have captive on whether or not to torture. The translated copy I have is just great. I got it used on Amazon and it has really been rode hard and put up wet. All the pages are paper thin and discolored with age, so someone was really referencing it. Printed in 1963 and translated by Samuel Griffith, the text is really able to lay out the different terse in laymen terms.
Given the ease of understanding this book provides, right there in black and white on page 76 terse 19, the book reads “Treat captives well, and care for them. All soldiers taken must be cared for with magnanimity and sincerity so that they may be used by us.” My friend Bill countered with, “Sun Tzu was not dealing with terrorism he was dealing with traditional combat tactics, terrorists are merciless and driven by fanatic religious zeal!” I think Sun Tzu would respond something like “maybe so, but it is politically connected and for that reason torture must never be considered.” Why is our American government missing this obvious message?
14 years ago
It has been a long time since I have dusted off my copy of The Art of War, but from what I recall, Sun Tzu was concerned mainly with prosecuting an asymmetric war AGAINST a superior force. Indeed, his work is likely more applicable to the al-Qaeda forces and Taliban insurgency that it is directly to the U.S. Military (though of course you can make an indirect argument of essential reverse engineering Sun Tzu's ideas).
ReplyDeleteA key component of Sun Tzu's writing is the strategy of the indirect approach (again, its been a while, but I believe that is what my translation stated it as) and relying on certain factors to act as "force multipliers," against a conventionally superior foe. The U.S. military by its very nature has a difficult time employing an indirect approach, because their objectives are traditional: take, clear, and hold territory. Insurgents don't have to do that, at least not directly.