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The Art of War
December 21, 2006
More troops to Iraq? Well, not entirely bad news for us - we probably don’t need until 2026 to overtake US economically. Some economists estimate that our GDP, based on an optimistic model (ie no major political or economic disruptions in China and a growth rate at or around the current rate), will overtake that of US in less than 20 years’ time. The estimate also assumes no major hiccups in the US. Upping their bets on their phoney war on terrorism may just do the trick.
There are only two situations where an expert gambler will up his bets - he is on a winning streak or he knows he is about to lose all. Five years on, the war in Iraq so far doesn’t seem to be suggesting anything that the US military is on a winning streak. Indeed, it was only weeks that the Iraq Study Group headed by Baker and Hamilton concluded in its report that the United States was losing in Iraq. Now they want to up the bets.
Hu Jintao would have done the American people a great deal of favour if he had brought a copy of The Art of War to Bush as a gift during his state visit last April. Our great general, Sun Tze already concluded the eventual outcome of the Iraq war some 2,500 years’ ago:
(if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle).
Can we say that they know their enemies in Iraq despite all the information they have gathered through tortune and spying on other nations, including their allies. Highly unlikely.
And how to win the war in Iraq?
(One hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the most skillful. Seizing the enemy without fighting is the most skillful.)
Listen to “The Art of War”, Chapter 1.
Posted to General at December 21, 2006 03:54 AM :
Furl It!
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