Thread by @ThyConsigliori

John Minford, #SunTzu 3:6 "In a siege, three months are needed to assemble protective shields, armoured wagons, and sundry siege weapons and equipment; another three months to pile earthen ramps."

Do you remember what you were doing six months ago? Well, if you're beginning your attack on a walled city today, you were just beginning to assemble your protective shields. One of the greatest mistakes we make in attempting to ready Master Sun, is failure to imagine, literally.

Your mind is a time machine. You can go anywhere in it you wish.

What's an armoured wagon (yes, Minford uses the British spelling)? What are sundry weapons and equipment? What are earthen ramps and how do you pile them?

Slowly, so slowly, take your time. Imagine.

You might need a little help. So, the first step you should take is to look up the term "Forlorn Hope." There's an excellent Wikipedia article on topic, but anywhere you go will do. There are twisty turns and inversions. It's a deep thing, and will help your time travel.

Here's my own visualization of that term's meaning. Battle crazed and furiously angry, ambitious while yet accepting of the strange decisions of fate, you not only volunteer, you compete to be the first up the ladder attacking your enemy's stronghold. It seems insane, but isn't.

He just might live! And he does, promotion, reward, renown, respect, promotion, honor, and glory. If he dies, he won't linger long suffering. So pour down the hot oil, go ahead.

Have you ever tried aiming falling liquid? It's not easy.

He might live!

Mere study alone isn't strong enough to aid your time travel chops. You need to read historical novels. If you're not addicted to them, yet, well, get ready. You can't put them down. You'll sleep less. Your work quality will fall. They're evilly addictive. Seriously.

On the mission to understand siege warfare, here are two ABSOLUTE MUST READS: Sharpe's Tiger and The Religion. I won't try to compress their message. I will share that it was in Sharpe's Tiger that I learned about the Forlorn Hope. Sieges are hard to do. Whew.

And that is Master Sun's point. If you're going to attack a fortified enemy, be ready. Months and months of preparation. How many taels of silver? Too many to count, well not really, but lots of them. And soldiers after soldiers dying and dying and dying. Be ready.

Two points of application. Over the decades, Republicans have shown they just don't have the fortitude to attack fortified enemies. Consider @RealOmarNavarro vs. Maxine Waters. Not one Tweet on his behalf from @realDonaldTrump. Why not? The RNC and others tell him not to.

Republicans do not know how to engage Forlorn Hope. How many districts go to Democrats with zero opposition, or meaningless opposition? We see their walls and we feint in fear of defeat, so we chose certain defeat over Forlorn Hope. Shame on us.

Historically, by the way, we know that any fortification can be broken if you're committed enough. We just never are. That must change. We must STOP giving up the fight without a fight. That's a huge component of how America's greatness was lost.

Education. That's my second application. It is more fortified than just about any other base of modern American liberal attack against American values. Contemplate that. We have free public education. Not sure I support that, actually, but that's my old libertarianism showing.

But if we're going to spend more trillions of dollars on education than any country ever has, then maybe we might want to think about getting a little return on our investment. Rather, what we get is children attacking Senator Feinstein for not supporting the New Green Deal.

Speaking of which! China. Mao. The Cultural Revolution. Children ratting out their parents. Does that NOT give you chills? Children are right now attacking one of the most liberal senators for not being liberal enough. Education has been weaponized by the left. It's fortified.

Who will be our Forlorn Hope, and run up the ladder of the local school district's anti-American curriculum? This is local skirmishing, and I assure you, it will be ugly. The fight will be fierce. But, we must ask ourselves: are we going to make America great again? Yes or no?

If so, Master Sun warns us, we'd better start assembling our protective shields, armoured wagons and sundry weapons and equipment. Do you know how to read a curriculum? Do you know when your local school board meets to authorize the curriculum?

47 verses completed, 395 to go.

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…