Sun Tzu Quotes
A skilled commander seeks victory from the situation and does not demand it of his subordinates.
Sun Tzu, c. 400 BC, Chinese writer of the Age of Warring States, The Art of War
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Marshall was then the chief of staff of the army. Ignoring the seniority system which was the tradition of the Army for promotions produced a necessary corps of great young officers. The most dramatic example of this was the promotion of Dwight D. Eisenhower over many men far senior to him for the Supreme Allied Commander. Marshall and FDR were driving forces to put young men in leadership positions.
He was objecting to the current crop of senior military officer who have little experience in fighting and much in academic, strategic and technical training. Many however see him as a dinosaur who does not realized the complex nature of the modern military missions. In general, we have won almost all of our fighting battles but often failed in our maintaining civil society, occupation, nation building, military procurement, preventing sexual assault of our own troops by our own soldiers, assuring mental health of our soldiers. Hackworth, detractors argue, wants to change what already works and ignore what does not.
Sun Tzu was a Chinese general, military strategist, writer, and philosopher who lived in the Eastern Zhou period of ancient China. Sun Tzu is traditionally credited as the author of The Art of War, an influential work of military strategy that has affected both Western and East Asian philosophy and military thinking. His works focus much more on alternatives to battle, such as stratagem, delay, the use of spies and alternatives to war itself, the making and keeping of alliances, the uses of deceit, and a willingness to submit, at least temporarily, to more powerful foes. Sun Tzu is revered in Chinese and East Asian culture as a legendary historical and military figure. His birth name was Sun Wu and he was known outside of his family by his courtesy name Changqing. The name Sun Tzu by which he is best known in the Western World is an honorific which means "Master Sun".
