Thread by @ThyConsigliori

John Minford, #SunTzu 3:7 "The general who cannot master his anger orders his troops out like ants, sending one in three to their deaths, without taking the city. This is the calamity of siege warfare."

Let's address a foolish reading, first. "This is the calamity of siege warfare." That means, NEVER ENGAGE IN A SIEGE, right? No, no, no, no. It means that, if you're going to engage in a siege, you must be aware of the potential calamity. It does NOT mean, NEVER BESIEGE.

It does mean, NEVER BESIEGE IN ANGER. Consider, anger is a flashing emotion. A siege is a slow, expensive, long, long, long endeavor. The siege will last longer than your anger. If you're going to besiege something, rage is not the answer.

To truly probe this verse, consider our Master Sun. Many believe he didn't even exist, and that some inscrutable oral tradition turns into an inscrutable textual tradition and voila, out pops the Art of War, later, only purportedly written by a mythical hero.

I don't think the evidence supports that theory, but let's imagine it's correct, anyway. Then, some person, somewhere along the way, found the phenomenal wisdom of this verse. Whomever that was - and I will always call him Master Sun - is guiding us against rage.

Okay, in combat, anger turns into aim, and aim turns into a dead enemy. Slow, however, with aim over speed. That defines discipline. And discipline is cool, not hot. Rage is hot. Do you see the dilemma? We cannot suppress anger, but rage makes us into idiots.

Idiocy. Master Sun does not use this term. It's one of my own favorites. Now, combine it with power. A general can be an idiot. I apologize to all my friends who are generals, but I suspect they know so many idiots they'll resist my apology.

Master Sun explains, when you combine idiocy, rage, and power, the result, in a siege, is 33% die and you do NOT gain your objective. Have you visited the Vietnam War Memorial in DC. It honors the one third who fell. But what about the idiot, raging generals who killed them?

Let me ask you a question. Do you weep? I mean literally, heaving sobs. Do you weep? I do, sometimes, but nowhere nearly as often as I should. I wept when I visited Dachau. I'm proud of that. At the Vietnam Memorial, I did not. I just couldn't. But I should have.

The Last Samurai, staring Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe. I wept when I watched that movie. I keep meaning to watch it again, but I don't like crying like a baby. The stupid generals. The lost honor. The meaningless death. The lost causes. Master Sun and I, we're not PRO-war.

We're men of grim resolve and you should be too. If your anger is so great it makes you an idiot, then don't begin a siege. You'll lose 1/3 of your men and NOT win the city. War is serious. Death is serious. Rage makes you not care. Rage makes you stupid. Stop that.

In the #MAGA movement many are shocked at the rise of the Socialist Democrats. Let's be clear. It's our fault. We gave away our children's curriculum to the left. We failed to show up, fight, and win. It's on us. And it's one us to besiege it until we win.

Socialism is now a fortified city. And if we let our shocked and stupid rage control us, we're going to lose. If we wish to win, we need a better plan. That doesn't mean shy away from siege warfare. It mean, face and master our rage. Cool anger is the answer, not hot.

It is time to begin the long war to win our children back from the left. It is time to wipe out the scourge of socialism from the political world of America. This is siege warfare. Rage won't bring us home. We need our anger, but we must master it, and not let it master us.

48 verses completed, 394 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…