Master Sun-Tzu, President Hu and Bush

  By JOHN WALSH

  At the very least China's President Hu displayed a
 sense of humor in presenting a book, of all things,
 to George W. Bush on his recent visit to the United States.

  The choice of Sun-Tzu's fifth century B.C. classic,
 "The Art of War" was tantalizing.

  Since Dubya certainly will not penetrate too far into it,
 I decided to have a look, so that at least one American would
 honor the Chinese gift by actually reading it.

  This provided me a rare patriotic surge, much like the rush
 when I put my tax return in the mailbox.




  Sun-Tzu did not disappoint.
  At almost the very beginning of the second chapter I found
 a near perfect description of Dubya's ill-fated war on Iraq.


 To quote:

    "Master Sun said: The art of warfare is this:

    "In joining battle, seek the quick victory.
  If battle is protracted, your weapons will be blunted and
  your troops demoralized. If you lay siege to a walled city,
  you exhaust your strength. If your armies are kept in the
  field for a long time, your national reserves will not suffice.

  Where you have blunted your weapons, demoralized your troops,
  exhausted your strength and depleted all available resources,
  the neighboring rulers will take advantage of your adversity
  to strike. And even with the wisest of counsel, you will not
  be able to turn the ensuing consequences to the good. There
  never has been a state that has benefited from an extended war."


 

   What a simple and concise description of the quagmire in Iraq!

  Here Sun-Tzu is providing counsel for an invading army. For the
 invaded, or in our era for the colonized or occupied, protracted
 struggle and the inevitable atrocities committed by the invader
 are both keys to victory. It is certain that the military and the
 neocon architects of the war know these classical principles of
 warfare even if Dubya is clueless.

  One is led to suspect that the neocons knew that a quagmire would
 ensue in Iraq, and in fact there is evidence for this, but they did
  not care. They had other goals. (Think Mearscheimer and Walt.*)




  In the third chapter,
  Sun-Tzu makes some further pertinent observations.


    "Master Sun said: The art of warfare is this:

    "It is best to keep one's own state intact;
  to crush the enemy's state is only a second best.
  The highest excellence is to attack strategies;
  the next to attack alliances; the next to attack soldiers;
  and the worst to attack walled cities.
  . Therefore the expert in using the military subdues
 the enemies forces without going to battle."



   In other words going to battle is a sign of weakness,
  a sign that other means were not available. The very fact
  that the U.S. wages war on Iraq is a sign either of weakness
  or lack of wisdom, the latter a failure to perceive one's
  own interests. (Think Mearscheimer and Walt again.*)




   In Chapter 13,

    "Master Sun said:

    "Intelligence is of the essence in warfare ­ it is what
     the armies depend upon in their every move."

 

   This has a dual application. In Iraq the Americans are surrounded
 by the Resistance; it seeps into their every pore like water even
 though they inhabit the desert. And so the Americans have no
 intelligence, and all the Abu Ghraib's in the world will not extort
 the information they want.

 One does not readily betray one's family and friends.



   Finally, in the very first words of Chapter 1,
 Sun-Tzu offers perhaps his most important observation
 which we have left for last:

    "Master Sun said:

    "War is a vital matter of state. It is the field on which
 life or death is determined and the road which leads to either
  survival or ruin, and must be examined with greatest care.


    "Therefore to gauge the outcome of war we must appraise the
 situation on the basis of the following five criteria, and compare
 the two sides by assessing their relative strengths.

  The first of the five criteria is the way (tao).
  The way (tao) is what brings the thinking of the
  people in line with their superiors."



  (Think the polls that show the overwhelming majority of Americans
   feel that the war in Iraq is a mistake and not worth fighting,
    certainly not worth dying for. This amounts to bad tao for Bush
    and his accomplices in both War Parties.)