We have reached the end of another classic tome. You will get my full opinion on the overall book next week. If you have been following along, then you probably can guess where I am going to go with this. But for now, we have one more chapter to get through.

I get the sense that what Sun Tzu is implying is that the use of spies will help shorten the war. But it is the beginning of the chapter that caught my eye. Continuous fighting is extremely costly. First and foremost, it effects the men that are fighting. That is obvious. But, then it effects the families and the economy and the morale and the country overall.

Let us just look at things for a minute. Who benefits from twenty years of war? Was it the soldiers? No. Was it the families? No. Was it society? No. So I ask again, who benefits from the twenty years of war in Afghanistan? Was it freedom? No, we have less than ever. Was it the Afghans/Iraqis? No, they are right back where they started.

Remember when I talked about right for the wrong reasons? Here we are. This is not hindsight. It was less than four years ago that the US withdrew from Afghanistan and the writing was on the wall years before that. Sun Tzu wants spies to shorten war. For some reason, others do not want the war to end.

Who might that be? If it is not good for the people or society then who could possibly want it to continue? The only answer is the people that profit from war. That would be first and foremost the military industrial complex enabled and sustained by politicians. Such an insidious relationship where they wrap themselves in an American flag. They are there for the soldier and freedom.

The politicians use their Newspeak to point fingers at the other political side and the fictitious enemy. You know that it cannot be true when all the news stories cover children following soldiers around asking for candy and the people are so warm and welcoming. The perception given is that people are liberated and happy when inexplicitly the war continues.

There is certainly a time to fight. The very best reason is when you are invaded and you definitely don’t want it. So Poland in 1939 is a pretty good reason. Sometimes getting provoked is a pretty good reason. But like I was taught in Sunday school, do unto others that you would have done onto you. Or how about grade school? Two wrongs don’t make a right.

What amazes me is the approval rating of congress has been perennially less than 30%. And yet the re-election rate of incumbents is over 80% for all positions (house and senate). So let us say that I disapprove of the job the senate has done but yet I have sent my same senator for six straight terms. Is it always someone else’s fault? Logic would have to say no. Maybe, just maybe I shouldn’t keep re-electing the problem.

Unfortunately, when military actions are taken without a declaration of war, the system is broken. And when the system is broken, nothing can be trusted. You cant actually expect someone to change a system when all involved ignore the rules.

I am not going argue that intelligence is key to making the best decisions. It is really hard to say that Sun Tzu includes that vast topic under the umbrella of spies or not. It doesn’t really seem written that way. So again, if we stay myopically under spies, I cant think of relevance in the civilian world.

End Your Programming Routine: I should talk that that I am advocating for power to the people. I don’t even believe that we can vote our way out of this. At the same time, I cannot agree with Sun Tzu more that war is costly. It is why it should not be entered lightly and should end as quickly as possible. We absolutely get caught up in taking sides on a conflict where we are always the losers.