In Chapter 2, Sun Tzu gets into some of the mechanics of Waging War.
My key takeaway from this chapter: The key objective of war is WINNING, and the key to winning is SPEED.
Protracted battles result in “blunted instruments,” “sapped morale,” and an “empty treasury.”
And while there is certainly such a thing as blundering swiftness, no one yet (or since) has seen a clever war that was prolonged.
Colin Powell’s doctrine of overwhelming force is a great example of Sun Tzu’s theory in action.
(I’ll leave the political commentary with that.)
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I am glad you decided to do a video dealing with the Art of War by Sun Tzu. I posted comments dealing with The Art of War by Sun Tzu on the web when I ran for elective office several years ago which people may read by typing stremsky and Sun Tzu on a search engine.
I hope our leaders will learn from the book.
I mention the book on http://www.myspace.com/kennethstremsky
The terrorists who attacked India want to make things worse between India and Pakistan. Sometimes, you need to think of the unexpected and then do it. Pakistan and India should work together to go after the terrorists in Pakistan. Pakistan and India should increase trade, student exchanges, and other things.
Jason, your comment tends to urgency. Patience can be very functional.
Consider this term from physics: power. Power is not just force or speed, but also mass or momentum- and the capacity to quickly activate or redirect resources- like a bicycle or motorcycle may have speed, but it lacks the towing power of an SUV. However, motorcycles- with their capacity to suddenly accelerate- are also distinctively valuable.
If you had to pick a single word for that principle in Sun Tzu, maybe “initiative” would work or even “motivation.” “Power” is the capacity to bring even weighty things to a high speed quickly (and perhaps to stop or redirect them smoothly as well). I say power is that single word.