Sun Tzu Quotes
Attacking does not merely consist in assaulting walled cities or striking at an army in battle array; it must include the art of assailing the enemy's mental equilibrium
This is the earliest known explicit writing about physiological warefare and its effect on morale of the enemy.
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
Washington was describing the British strategy at the start of the war. The expectation was not only that of the British high command in America but was the prevailing expectation in the Court, Parliament, and the media in London. British critics of the military strategy point to this as a key reason the British lost the war in the end. Instead of waiting for the American troops to fall apart during the hard winter and gain a cheap and easy victory, the critics argue that the British should have initiated full scale attacks on the weakened and ill provisioned American soldiers.
Von Richthofen, cousin of the “Red Baron,” was justifying tactics that the Germans tried out in Spain before the Second World War—specifically the complete obliteration of Guernica by bombing and strafing although there were no military targets in the city. Guernica was the first city ever completely destroyed by aerial bombardment. The atrocity inspired Picasso’s great paining of that name.
His hubris soon backfired as the Indians learned how to tactically cope with firearms. For example they soon learned that they would see the flash of the musket before the ball would discharge, so would lie down and the bullets would pass overhead. The muskets were effective as defensive weapons from behind barricades though not very accurate. Swords and pikes turned out to be more effective in most cases.
See {613496} for the origin of the “thrashing a cannibal” phrase.
This is an early example of spinning. The Crusaders had been routed very badly. Conrad, attempting to report to the home front, describes the event as a strategic retreat.
Eisenhower was then Supreme Allied Commander.
This has been true in just about every conflict. In WWII however, there were a highly disproportionate ration of atrocities with those of the axis forces dwarfing those of the U. S. and its allies. Further, after the war, those allied atrocities that did take place were published. In addition, one basic difference is in the policies of the fighting forces and their governments as opposed to individual actions by soldiers. In WWII, the allied atrocities were of the latter type, but the axis atrocities involved both.
Prior to this order, some German submarines had assisted the survivors of torpedoed ships. None did after and some actually machine gunned survivors in the water. One aspect of the quotation that is particularly interesting was the Admiral’s justification example of the Allied bombing of German Cites. What he did not say was that this practice did not begin until Germany—at the insistence of Hitler—ignored the Geneva Conventions and bombed London, Coventry and other English cities. Hitler declared London an “Open City”. The Allies retaliated by bombing factories that were in German Cities. After the war Donitz was found guilty of Unrestricted Submarine Warfare and using thousands of slave laborers in his shipyards. He was sentenced to 10 years, one of the lightest sentences if the German War Crimes Trials.
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".
