Sun Tzu: Attack the enemy’s strategy first – two recent examples

Image (2007) courtesy of Wikipedia. Teaching Sun Tzu can be fairly straightforward – and kind of tough.  For example, what does he mean when he writes that “what is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy’s strategy?” (Griffith translation, p. 77).  Moreover, he writes that this should take precedence over other options –…

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Is military pay sustainable? Is it time for a cut?

Friday’s Last Word: Pull Pin, Throw Grenade, Run Away: A provocative thought to kick off the weekend… Image courtesy of Defense Imagery & Video Distribution System and Montana NG Public Affairs. In 2012, Time magazine noted a Congressional Budget Office report (critical selection available here) that found in 1980 it cost $57,000 to field a troop (all services…

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Simplifying Strategic Concepts: Thinking about what landpower, seapower, airpower (and the marines) ought to do

The principal United States Armed Services – Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Army.  Image from Disney’s “The Little Mermaid.” I’ve been thinking a lot about simplification lately. Bruce Lee said once that “the height of cultivation runs to simplicity.”  Of course, there’s a downside to this process – Mencken would retort, “for every complex problem…

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Global inequality is getting worse – more Jean Valjean’s will pick up AK47’s

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Friday’s Last Word: Pull Pin, Throw Grenade, Run Away: A provocative thought to kick off the weekend… Many know Victor Hugo’s 1862 story, Les Miserables, particularly the tortured existence of the protagonist, Jean Valjean (depicted on screen by Hugh Jackman).  Valjean spends years in a French prison for stealing bread for his sister’s…

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“DIME?” There is no “DIME” – just a massive “M” and pretty big “E”

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Friday’s Last Word: Pull Pin, Throw Grenade, Run Away: A provocative thought to kick off the weekend… It’s no secret that the United States is a massive enterprise.  While in graduate school, this chart from The Economist caught my eye.  It depicts each of the 50 U.S. states as world country equivalents.…

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