“Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.”
Sun Tzu, The Art of War
“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”
Sun Tzu, The Art of War
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
Sun Tzu, The Art of War
“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”
Sun Tzu, The Art of War
“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win”
Sun Tzu, The Art of War
I just bought a beautiful copy of The Art of War. It’s a replica of how they made books in the traditional way. I snagged it for $5 at a late yard sale.
Some quotes from “Mad Dog” Mattis, the new Secretary of Defense:
“The first time you blow someone away is not an insignificant event. That said, there are some assholes in the world that just need to be shot.”
“Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.”
“No war is over until the enemy says it’s over. We may think it over, we may declare it over, but in fact, the enemy gets a vote.”
“You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn’t wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway. So it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them. Actually it’s quite fun to fight them, you know. It’s a hell of a hoot. It’s fun to shoot some people. I’ll be right up there with you. I like brawling.”
Reminds me of Tuco from The Good, The Bad and the Ugly when he says: “When it’s time to shoot, shoot………don’t talk!
There’s nothing wrong with having guys who like to fight and go to war. The important thing is to only use them when every other option has been exhausted and then go all out balls to the wall savage on your enemies asses and then come home. In other words, once diplomacy has failed the politicians no longer have a say in it and you just unleash hell.
I don’t know what to think about a guy who says things like that.
On the one hand, it seems apparent that a guy who loves war is going to drag us into more wars……
But on the other hand, it seems to me that if we’re going to go to war, let’s at least be honest about it and call it what it is, and treat it for what it is. I think if we had warriors fighting wars instead of bureaucrats and politicians, our soldiers would be better off, and our country would be better off. It’s like that line from that movie, “Gladitor” ‘At my signal, unleash Hell.’
Everyone should read The Art of War, it’s useful in more than just war, it’s useful in every situation that involves winning and losing in a conflict that you participate in.
Even the subtle ones, maybe especially the subtle ones that you barely recognize as conflict at all.
It really doesn’t take that long to read, but a lifetime to fully understand.
http://suntzusaid.com/
My favorite Mad Dog Mattis quotes:
“A real understanding of history means that we face NOTHING new under the sun.”
“The problem with being too busy to read is that you learn by experience (or by your men’s experience), i.e. the hard way. By reading, you learn through others’ experiences, generally a better way to do business, especially in our line of work where the consequences of incompetence are so final for young men.”