I just finished watching The Great Courses broadcast of a course by Dr. Andrew R Wilson, who teaches at the Naval War College, on Sun Tsu’s “The Art of War”. So how does Trump measure up to the teachings of this classic text? No surprise, he fails. Here are a couple of key quotes that Trump violates.
“If it does not bring profit do not use troops. A ruler should not raise an army because of anger, nor should a general fight because they have been insulted. Anger and insult are temporary, death is permanent.”
What does this mean? The Sun Tsu authors wrote a revolutionary book that said only wage war if it benefits the country, not for personal reasons of the ruler. The practice had been rulers would lead the battles in chariots for glory or to prove their manhood, or to get revenge, or for small personal reasons. Sun Tsu said don’t be stupid. Only fight for the benefit of the country.
But, didn’t Trump say the war was about…?? … Capturing nuclear material? … wiping out their missiles? … killing their leaders? … opening the Strait of Hormuz? … er, ah, something?
No. Pretty clearly the Pedo in Chief just wanted to “ride his chariot into battle” by attacking and killing the leader so he could grab big headlines, thump his chest, and ride off in glory. No such luck. He’s stuck.
So what is Iran doing? Looks like they saw The Sopranos…. Tony Soprano in the HBO Series said, after killing a problem Capo, “If your enemy is choleric, irritate him”. So Tony goaded his enemy into anger and stupidity - and killed him. Iran is mocking and irritating our confused and sleepy Don.
And the world suffers as a result of this grandiose ego stupidity.
The Iranian theocratic zealots are cruel tyrants who have killed many thousands of civilians. It’s terrible news that the surviving rulers are in place, and people are saying they are even harsher than those already killed. And I don’t see them losing power. I am sorry for the Iranians who are hoping for liberation. The U.S. has no plans nor systems for assisting liberation. This was just an ego impulse for Trumpian glory. Egged on by Netanyahu who understandably tried to get all previous U.S. presidents to attack Iran, all of whom declined because of the Strait of Hormuz, and lucked out enticing the glory hungry Trump into doing Netanyahu’s heavy lifting.
It is not going well for either of them.
I would say a lesson for Netanyahu, and other leaders in the future, don’t expect someone dumb enough to be used by you not to be dumb enough to totally screw it up.
And I would say the lesson for America is to stop voting for dumbass glory hungry mentally ill psychopaths plunging into senility.
