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May 18, 2022

Quick Recap

A couple of old maxims pop into view.
  • When the war is not won quickly, and allowed to continue, it always devolves into a long slow war of attrition.
  • Always leave your enemy a way out. If he's trapped, he'll fight harder. But if he has an escape route, he'll run.


It may be a little wishful thinking-ish, but Putin's warning of "economic suicide" if the west rejects Russia's dirty fuels sounds a lot like the Confederate States believing they could strong arm France and the UK because they were so thoroughly dependent on American cotton in the 1860s.

I guess I'm hoping Mr Putin's as desperate as he sounds, so the bluff-n-bluster is all he's got - while at the same time worrying that it makes him even more dangerous. This is the guy who said he doesn't mind seeing himself as a cornered rat.

The tough part is pressing him, cutting off his avenues of attack, and shaping the total battle space (Force, Value, & Collateral) in a way that leaves him with only those options that you find acceptable.

And that's the modern version of The Art Of War - getting Foggy Bottom and The Pentagon and Treasury all working together - which, unfortunately, is still pretty much the classic Sun Tzu way of doing things, but calling it something else so we can rationalize our way out of "same shit new day".

I get confused, but it all seems to point me back to: There has to be a better way.

We can't just go on thinking we can settle our differences by bashing each other in the head with sticks and rocks.

Obviously, it's not bloody likely we'll be making great progress in that regard any time soon, but hey - a guy can hope, can't he?
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