Mass Gatherings In A Single Grain Of Sand

Where do you stand, aside Clausewitz or Sun Tzu? You can use each of the two’s writing and decipher how both would have handled the Tower Of Babel and then decide whether the twin towers were in their sights would we have followed the same tactic. Derek Leebaert wrote in his book, The Fifty-Year Wound wrote of Clausewitz, “…understanding Clausewitz’s writing on the capacity to harness-violent nonreason with this would-be stylized workings of state policy.”
Sun Tzu wrote, “Those skilled in defense conceal themselves in the lowest depths of the Earth, Those skilled in attack move in the highest reaches of the Heavens.” So from the heavens we search for a man, Bin laden, who is in the deepest part of the earth, the unknown. In this unknown many things can happen that necessarily do not have to actually exist. One can appear secluded and be out in the open. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle put these words in the mouth of his master sleuth Sherlock Holmes, “The best way to hide something is to put it in plain view.” Sun Tzu writes, “Foreknowledge cannot be elicited from ghosts and spirits; it cannot be inferred from comparison of previous events, or from the calculations of the heavens, but must be obtained from people who have knowledge of the enemy's situation.” The acquiring of this information whether through electronic or in person cannot always believed. You have to understand the information before you can distribute it in memoranda. Even then you cannot guarantee it will be read and understood if read at all.
Clausewitz wrote rather ominously, “The aim of war should be the defeat of the enemy. But what constitutes defeat? The conquest of his whole territory is not always necessary, and total occupation of his territory may not be enough.” We have occupied the entire country of Afghanistan and found only minor and some major players in the terror organizations, which would lead the prying eye to wonder, not wander over the information gathered and whether or not those who read it understood it or even read it. You have to at least consider for a moment that Bin Laden may very well be inside the borders of Saudi Arabia where he acquired most of his wealth by merely being born. The hijackers of 9/11 have been traced to Saudi Arabia so it doesn’t take Clausewitz or Sun Tzu to figure out whether or not we should be our ally’s keeper.


- Chris Mansel