New York Times on the Web Forums Science

Missile Defense

Russian military leaders have expressed concern about US plans for a national missile defense system. Will defense technology be limited by possibilities for a strategic imbalance? Is this just SDI all over again?

lunarchick - 04:32pm May 4, 2001 EST (#3265 of 3291)
lunarchick@www.com

The Art of War

By Sun Tzu (www.britannica.com) gives a comprehensive breakdown on the book - via MIT site : sample:

Laying Plans

1. Sun Tzu said: The art of war is of vital importance to the State.

Waging War

1. Sun Tzu said: In the operations of war, where there are in the field a thousand swift chariots, as many heavy chariots, and a hundred thousand mail-clad soldiers, with provisions enough to carry them a thousand li, the expenditure at home and at the front, including entertainment of guests, small items such as glue and paint, and sums spent on chariots and armor, will reach the total of a thousand ounces of silver per day. Such is the cost of raising an army of 100,000 men.

Attack by Stratagem

1. Sun Tzu said: In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it, to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company entire than to destroy them.

Tactical Dispositions

1. Sun Tzu said: The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.

The Nine Situations

1. Sun Tzu said: The art of war recognizes nine varieties of ground: (1) Dispersive ground; (2) facile ground; (3) contentious ground; (4) open ground; (5) ground of intersecting highways; (6) serious ground; (7) difficult ground; (8) hemmed-in ground; (9) desperate ground.

etc

lunarchick - 04:50pm May 4, 2001 EST (#3266 of 3291)
lunarchick@www.com

"divine manipulation of the threads."

7. Hence the use of spies, of whom there are five classes: (1) Local spies; (2) inward spies; (3) converted spies; (4) doomed spies; (5) surviving spies.

8. When these five kinds of spy are all at work, none can discover the secret system. This is called "divine manipulation of the threads." It is the sovereign's most precious faculty. (from above)

lunarchick - 04:54pm May 4, 2001 EST (#3267 of 3291)
lunarchick@www.com

MAD

gisterme - 04:55pm May 4, 2001 EST (#3268 of 3291)

"1. Sun Tzu said: The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy."

lunarchick - 04:57pm May 4, 2001 EST (#3269 of 3291)
lunarchick@www.com

http://www.feer.com/tw.html US-China relations

rshowalter - 05:03pm May 4, 2001 EST (#3270 of 3291)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

The only reasonable purpose of war is to set up a civil society -- and after the fall of the Soviet Union the threat apparatus should have been taken down, and some healing done.

rshowalter - 05:05pm May 4, 2001 EST (#3271 of 3291)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Instead, things were done, and are being done to perpetuate a military-industrial complex by fraud -- after grave, deep corruption of the United States has gone on for many years.

lunarchick - 05:06pm May 4, 2001 EST (#3272 of 3291)
lunarchick@www.com

note:

U.S. annual investment in China rose 50% to $4.5 billion, making it the largest source of foreign investment in the mainland after Hong Kong. Over the same period, bilateral trade doubled to $116 billion. The U.S. now buys a third of China's exports, many of them made by U.S. companies in China. Entry to the World Trade Organization is expected to make China a bigger buyer too.

rshowalter - 05:07pm May 4, 2001 EST (#3273 of 3291)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

The best, cleanest, most decent resolution here would be for the Republican party to clean out some essential parts of this mess themselves.

My guess is that they won't.

I'd hope that the problems here can be resolved in a way where the United States plays a decent part.

However, I don't believe, as a practical matter, that will have to be necessary.

Has it been, for a long time now, standard US policy to threaten other countries with first strikes with nuclear weapons? That surely should be classified as both a violation of human rights, and a War Crime. A lot of countries have felt that way, for a long time.

As of yesterday, the United States government lost much of the power to obstruct this classification.

It should be possible, without any U.S. government participation at first, to make such a case that, for essential economic and social reasons, the US will have, finally, to do the right and decent things. rshowalter 4/22/01 3:35pm

(18 following messages)

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense