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Biden, Putin, and Sun Tzu [1]

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Date: 2023-06-14

There are many great things the ancient general Sun Tzu wrote in his book, “The Art of War.” Among the most important and most repeated are the best generals figure out a way to win without fighting, and the worst thing you could possibly do as a general is go into enemy territory and lay siege to a city.

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” “The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.” “The wise warrior avoids the battle.” “The superior militarist strikes while schemes are being laid. The next best is to attack alliances. The next best is to attack the army. The lowest is to attack a city. Siege of a city is only done as a last resort.” “If the general cannot overcome his anger and has his army swarm over the citadel, killing a third of his soldiers, and yet the citadel is still not taken, this is a disastrous attack.”

Biden is the most successful Commander in Chief of the last century. Why? Because he is destroying one of our primary advisories without involving our military or nation in actual battle.

I am so sick of Trumpers complaining about spending $$$ on the Ukraine war. The Pentagon has almost a TRILLION dollar budget every year. That money is supposed to keep the country safe from direct attack, but also from other nations becoming superpowers that could challenge the international order which is heavily influenced (or basically run) by us. In this century Russia and China were the big threats to the international world order. This is a blunt thought exercise, but lets split the cost down the middle. Lets say we spend 500 billion a year each making sure China and Russia do not become ascendant in the world order. Along comes Ukraine and Putin, who decides to invade it. We put up a spending package of only 40 billion to finance the literal self-destruction of not only the Russian military physically, but Russia’s reputation as a military threat, it’s economic power, and partially China’s military reputation, as much of the Chinese military tactics and hardware have been copied from Russia. All those years of spending trillions on defense against Russia through the Cold War and Russia re-surgent... and Biden is wiping the mat clean with just tens of billions in aid.

Not only that but we are proving Western military tech as the world’s greatest, NATO has pulled together and is again a credible alliance that has proven it can stick together and shape world events and wars. No one wants security guarantees from Russia anymore, everyone wants to be in NATO. How many US troops were sacrificed on the battlefield for this amazing accomplishment?

Zero.

All our troops are still on active duty and alive. None of their training has been lost, none of our economy has been hurt or destroyed by this war, you might argue the opposite. No families are mourning the losses of their sons or daughters in our country. The Russian military is being obliterated and we haven’t lost a thing except money. Money which does not even really figure into the crazy military budget we have.

No one is talking about this. The GOP wet their pants talking about how Reagan beat the commies by “outspending them.” Biden is doing him one better, not only destroying the Russian economy but its entire military and ability to project power anywhere, and doing it cheaper.

Oh, and it’s just the right thing to do, helping an ally we GAVE security guarantees to when the Soviet Union collapsed to stop nuclear proliferation. The action is Machiavellian as hell for us, but it also happens to be morally congruent with our nations values.

SO WHY ARE WE NOT CELEBRATING THIS MAN FOR HIS MILITARY GENIUS.

Conservatives just want to talk about leaving Afghanistan and that it was messy on TV. Maybe it could have been done better, but you know what? No one, in a DECADE could figure out a way to do it and not be messy. And all the other Commander in Chief’s including Obama wimped out, afraid of the political costs of it looking messy. Biden was the only one with the balls to just be like, I don’t give a fuck how it looks we are getting out of that shit sandwich, enough is enough.

So he has the balls to end a useless war, and the intelligence to bring down one of our all time biggest strategic rivals without endangering any of our troops.

He’s the best general you’ve never thought of… because he doesn’t care about taking credit, he cares about getting the job done and saving the lives of those who volunteer to defend our nation. The ultimate respect for our military and soldiers is to try and figure out ways to defeat our enemies and NOT send them to war, to NOT risk their lives if possible and preserve them as a critical national resource that can keep our nation, and the world for that matter, safe.

That kind of commander I think is thankless, but as Sun Tzu recognized, invaluable to the survival and success of the state.

Putin… well... You heard what Sun Tzu said about laying siege to cities… All you have to say is Bakhmut. You never put your military in a foreign land for a prolonged period just to lay siege. Every day you are there is a drain on the state, every casualty weakens you. The defenders have all the advantages and you waste your troops, their training, your equipment, you drain your economy supporting the siege you cause internal discord as people deal with losses and see no gains.

Yet the Trumpers love him. Maybe they should try reading books instead of banning them. Maybe we should try appreciating Biden for shaping a world order that actually has order and not wasting our troops to go after dictators our Dad didn’t kill, just to put our troops in the middle of a religious civil war we had nothing to do with.

Comments welcome.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/14/2175487/-Biden-Putin-and-Sun-Tzu

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