Empty and Full + The Fray + The Nine Changes

Master Sun beings by writing about 'the skillful warrior stirs and is not stirred' meaning not letting yourself become reactionary to what the enemy is doing. A purely reactionary strategy is never a good thing since it gives the enemy control over your behavior.

Rather, according to Sun Tzu, one must strike the enemy where he is unprepared and appear where he least expects you. Easier said than done.

Sun Tzu was right when he says that by attacking a certain part, the enemy will naturally reinforce it and weaken another part. This reminded me of 'We Were Soldiers Once' in how the US soldiers reinforced the front from where they expected attack to come, but some officers were very diligent in filling in the gaps. When pulling security at a patrol base or wherever, being aware of weaknesses because you are reinforcing another area is something else to think about.

Another consideration that is presented is avoiding a fight if your men are exhausted. After marching them for thirty miles, it is a bad idea to engage. This is where you have to be wary, since Tzu says to strike quickly, but moving too quickly over too long a distance can be very stupid. Towards the end of the second chapter, he also warns not to bite at the enemy's bait. Just as you are thinking of deceiving him, assume that he is thinking of deceiving you and steer clear of it.

The Nine Changes which overview terrain reminded me of OAKOC since we have our own terrain procedures such as staying clear from roads and/or crossing them quickly, fanning out while in the open, etc. etc.

Forms and Dispositions + Potential Energy

Sun Tzu says that the skillful warrior can achieve his own invulnerability but he can never cause the vulnerability of the enemy. That fits into being prepared at all times, and then seizing the initiative in a battle for when an opportunity presents itself and riding the momentum to victory.

Skillful victories lie in attacking what is vulnerable, hitting the enemy where it hurts the most. Sun admits that victory can be gained head-on as well, but this would entail more casualties and difficulties than absolutely necessary. This deals with the hard choices that 2nd Lieutenants have to make between actions that will get the job done without your people getting killed.

What I understood from the chapter on potential energy is more emphasis on seizing the initiative. He also mentions engaging directly and seizing victory indirectly (flanking)and that timing makes a big difference. In the STX lanes, maneuvering and attacking from the side is important, as well as the timing of the assault team. While urban combat may be radically different, timing and seizing the initiative must still play a vital role.

Strategic Offensive

'Better take a state intact than destroy it' will relate to don't mess with the locals' stuff if you don't need to. If you feel you need to, full speed ahead, but don't do it out of carelessness.

Master Sun says it excellently that one who knows himself but not the enemy will win some and lose some, one who knows neither will be destroyed, and one who knows both will be victorious. This is an excellent point to remember, and means that an officer really needs to study up on who the enemy is and how he thinks. Knowing himself and his own men is vital, but I feel like we often go in without trying to know the enemy.

His recommendations of odds remind me of how one should not seek to engage unless the odds are 3 to 1. He also has some underlying strategy in there (e.g. 'with two, split in half' aka flank).

His mention of defeating the enemy without fighting is applied in Iraq and Afghanistan in winning over the hearts and minds of the locals, and also in the sometimes-successful method of paying lower-level fighters to switch sides.

Waging of War (what is it good for?)

In short: War costs a lot of money. The longer you wage war for, the more money it costs and the more demoralized your men get (e.g. Alexander the Great's men demanding to go home). Don't wage it for longer than you can help it or you will go broke. Going broke is bad because you will need to raise taxes. Raising taxes will impoverish you country. Impoverishing your country will reduce its ability to wage war.

Even back in the day, Sun Tzu recognized that the daily cost of war was ridiculous.The amount of money being poured into Iraq and Afghanistan today is ridiculous. One sketchy site says that the state of Indiana alone has paid $15.9 billion in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001.

Sun also touched on supply lines and shipping supplies. While it is much more speedy and streamlined nowadays, this still costs mucho dinero. The instruction of foraging off the enemy's food was all well and good back then, but somehow I don't think that stealing turnips from the local Iraqis will win us this war. A war against an insurgency plays by different rules, so the whole 'use the enemy's supplies' is more or less obsolete since cannot use the locals' supplies without their permission and we are more apt to destroy captured insurgency supplies than use them.

Making of Plans

Master Sun seems knowledgeable enough, and his simplicity is refreshing: do this and you will lose, do that and you will win. The choices that one can make to win or lose, though they appear simple because of his curt wording, are in fact complicated processes. For example 'If the enemy is full, be prepared' has many more implications than it is letting on. Thereby, most of what Sun Tzu says is more like an outline of an outline which must be applied.

The Five Fundamentals that Master Sun presents are:

The Way,
Heaven,
Earth,
Command,
Discipline

They way seems an awful lot like our definition of leadership, in that he who possesses the way is the one that men will follow without wavering. The Way is the most important among these for it determines Command and Discipline as well.

Heaven is the consideration of climate, weather, and season. It is not for nothing that we go over weather and temperature in OPORDs, if you're out in the middle of the desert for the entire day in the blazing sun you'd better be equipped to hydrate and have a plan on when and how to do it. Heaven does not mean mobilizing your troops during WWII in Russia so that they will be caught by deep winter and reduced to shreds because you are an idiot.

Earth affects all missions because all missions are terrain dependent. Move stealthily, keeping your head on a swivel through thick brush, and knowing how to navigate terrain by map is all essential. Using geographical features to your advantage or navigating by them falls under Earth.

Command is something that falls under The Way because it is part of what makes men follow a leader. It means knowing how to create and sustain the moral of an army.

Discipline is simple enough, your men should know their punishments and rewards and you should not shrink back from delivering either. Knowing the chain of command is something else that can be recognized in TLP and is presented in OPORDs.

The Sergeat and the Ghost/Escape and Evade

The battle at Albany was portrayed as a tumult of confusion, with men getting hit left and right. Probably the most disturbing instances mentioned were of men getting shoveled up into their ponchos after they'd been blown to pieces or of the sounds of American wounded being executed by the VC. Almost makes me want to become a pacifist.

Several times in the book, there are instances where the quoted words of individuals surprised me in registering these beyond-terrible acts to fellow human beings, but then continuing to function: "The enemy were killing our wounded. When the relief patrol came in it was from my south, I think." Many moments such as this shock me with the detachment through they regard these acts, yet they keep going. I'm starting to get the picture that there is nothing else to do but to keep going. Your duty is always the same. To disregard a portion of your humanity is the Faustian pact for military competence.

Luck was also a notable presence on the battlefield. Braveboy's story of survival after several days, or Sergeant's Kluge's men not getting shot up while they were carrying wounded with their rifles on their backs were undeniably lucky. No matter how good or bad a soldier you are, blind luck will have a good say in what happens. So, in that case, there is no need to worry about what you can't control. The last thing I want, however, is for something bad to happen that I could have controlled but wasn't competent enough to do it.

Hell in a Very Small Place...Death in the Tall Grass

Confusion is always the bane of all fighting forces. Disorganization and panic fragments and disperses a unit's fighting effectiveness substantially, and men are much more likely to die needlessly as a result.

Every plan looks nice and simple on paper, but out on the actual battlefield things are bound to become much more convoluted and complicated. Factors such as terrain and temperature have massive impacts that are easy to forget about if doing planning in an air-conditioned room talking about formations. This became apparent on the FTXs, where even though the mission was cut-and-dry and centered in a small area, confusion nevertheless took place. People became lost as a result of blind travel, and sometimes the objective itself would be completely bypassed. These situations slowed down operations significantly and slowed momentum down. And this was only on a mock training mission...

The sister battalion's experience at Albany also showed that American forces are by no means indestructible or untouchable. It is vital to understand that there is no built-in superiority that makes us invulnerable and victorious, and that the enemy is very capable of destroying you if you let him.