The underlying theme in this assigned reading is, “Victory is the main object in war”. Sun Tzu goes onto explain how he believes that there are two main principles in order to obtain victory, these being hastiness in battle and logistics. On the subject of haste, he goes into detail on how if a battle or war is dragged on longer than necessary; the units fighting it will gradually lose moral and motivation over that extended period of time. As for logistics, this can be correlated to last week’s reading about the “5 Fundamental factors” pertaining specifically to terrain analysis. An example being:
As we read in “we were soldiers once and young” last semester, Col. Moore sees the advantage in taking a key land feature, the creek bed. He understands that if the opposing forces take this creek bed that not only is it an advantageous position in a firefight, but eventually the opposition would have over-ran his position. Col. Moore’s thought process is a perfect example of thinking logistically as well as swiftly.
This mindset is especially helpful and a must for the officers in today’s Army. Being swift in today’s Army goes without saying, there are millions of examples, but here is just one:
· Urban warfare is todays battlefield, the war we fight now isn’t fought on some distant battlefield, but rather in the streets on populated suburbs with markets, businesses and homes, these areas are filled with innocent civilians. Thus the longer a unit is there the more chance they have of being ambushed and attacked. That’s why swiftness is essentially the backbone of todays coalition forces. A perfect example of this is how the US army utilizes raiding building and rooms. As we cadets learned firsthand during our frosh-o in MOUT.
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