Thread by @ThyConsigliori

John Minford, #SunTzu 2:10 "Supplying an army at a distance drains the public coffers and impoverishes the common people."

Supplying an army at a distance...that's a very interesting phrase. Distance is, in fact, one of great elements of combat. Let's use three weapons to illustrate: 1) Dagger, 2) Sword, 3) Spear. If you don't have experience with all three, just try to imagine their feeling.

The dagger is almost hard to remember when in your hand. When training for it, you can do very well simply learning how to throw a good punch. Stance and body weight, clean motion like a boxer is invaluable, and applies directly.

A sword has its own mind, if you will. In your hand, you always feel its weight and heft, and it resists some motions while encouraging others. Skilled swordsmen listen to their blades, very carefully indeed. One way to think of a sword is simply as 3 or 4 feet of steel.

A spear has a totally different dynamic. The moment you pick up a spear, you'll realize how strong you need to be. In striking, you'll immediately discover you need 5 to 10 feet of distance. In thrusting, the spear gives you access at 5 or 6 feet.

Focus on swinging a spear in an arcing strike, no different than using a hammer or a baseball bat. The torque is extraordinary. The moment you give the spear its motion it is extremely difficult to take control back. Learning to give it its path, without losing control is a goal.

Now put a dagger in your belt on your right, a scabbard on your belt on your left, and pick up the spear (and maybe a shield too) in your hands. You are armed, and you have three distances: 1) Short, 2) Near, 3) Long. An army at a distance is a spear, not a sword or dagger.

Let's discuss expenditure. Dagger = light. Sword = medium. Spear = heavy. I can't help but mention Goldilocks. I am a swordsman, not a dagger or spearman. A spear demands too much effort for my taste, a dagger too little. I like my enemy at just the right distance.

A nation supplies its army exactly as the body supplies energy to the fighter. This supply chain is just about the most expensive thing in the entire kingdom. Mind, you can't NOT spend that money because if you don't your enemy surely will. Yet you must always keep count.

The concept of impoverishing the common people was so amazing, I had to once again check multiple translations. It stands. Push your mind with me now. 2,500 years ago here's a general discussing how the common people are the basis of the military's distant reach.

I had to check on "public coffers" as well, and many translators stand behind it. It is often called the "state exchequer." I suspect "king's treasury" would be a decent translation. Kings ultimately get all their cash from common people. There are lords in between, of course.

Kings can use their spears, and send armies far afield, but they damn well better count the cost, and they damn well better know how many common people's produce will be expended. The common people's cash is never infinite in count.

In America, today, in the political wars we're waging, cash is almost not the issue. Yes, @realDonaldTrump expended his own, and he did so with greater efficiency than had ever been achieved. But the true energy is not cash, but rather spirit.

Funny thing, in the end, a vote is actually a free thing. it is a thing of spirit, of will, of effort to be sure, but it costs the voter precisely nothing in cash. For the voter, distance is a matter of time, not cash. How far out are the benefits, how far in the future?

And how near is the risk? Is the enemy at your throat with a dagger? HRC was so near we could all feel her breath on our foreheads. She was the greatest risk we'd ever felt, and she was this close.

Are we, the common people, impoverished of spirit? Are we, the #MAGA movement, an army to be extended at a distance?

As we face our shared future, we must marshal ourselves, and shore up and strengthen each others' spirits. We must bring the fight in close.

Repeatedly, I will make the tie between the well in an ancient village, and our schools for our children, today. Your local school is what is close. Not the high school, college or university. Your local elementary school. That is what is close.

Let us not squander the distant future by failing our children now. Let us not forget the near fight, #WarForAmerica2020. And let us forge ourselves into the army we must be to win the future, short, near and long. Let us not expend the public coffers of spirit without reward.

To return to previous sections in our #WarForAmerica2020 and #SunTzuForMAGA series, don't forget to head over to @WarForAmerica21.

And also, be sure to purchase John Minford's translation, here:

amazon.com/Art-War-Pengui…

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