Thread by @ThyConsigliori

John Minford, #SunTzu 5: 10 "In the dynamics of War, there are but these two--indirect and direct--and yet their permutations are inexhaustible. They give rise to each other in a never-ending, inexhaustible circle."

@realDonaldTrump took the most indirect route to the office of the presidency that anyone has ever taken. Consider, first he mastered the art of building buildings. Second, he mastered the art of writing bestselling books. Third, he became the highest paid speaker ever.

Fourth, he wrote four books on politics and America's future. Let's pause there. Who realizes he wrote four books on politics? I have never mentioned that fact to anyone who wasn't surprised to hear it. Did you know? He gets no credit for this fact. Interesting, isn't it?

Here's another interesting thing. Consider his tweets. The MSM constantly accuses him of stepping on his best stories, as if that was a mistake. He's merely living by Master Sun's counsel, when strong, appear weak. What's more, @POTUS always gets bad news out fast.

Go again. Consider the Mueller Report. It contains Weissman's 10 obstruction attacks, that @realDonaldTrump might readily have employed executive privilege to redact. Rather, he allows it forward sans the use of his privilege. Why? The use of privilege would have hurt him.

Go study them. Weissman's 10 charges, none of which mount up to a legal charge, help @POTUS, they don't hurt him. Mueller and Weissman throw their last arrow, and it misses the mark by a mile. @realDonaldTrump publishes their failed attack. That is indirect warfare.

My assessment is that the Democrats and their fellow swamp creatures are better at the employment of both, indirect and direct warfare against us, than we are. If there were a single reason I believe we need #SunTzuForMAGA it is this. We must master indirect warfare.

Face this fact, please. And, once faced, proclaim it far, wide, and boldly. @realDonaldTrump is more than just our president. He is our true leader. He shows us the way. He has employed Master Sun's counsel in order to become @POTUS. We too must follow the same counsel.

As I analyzed who we are, as a people, and as a movement to make America great again, I found that the single greatest gap we suffered was strategic. Unlike @POTUS, we are terrible at strategy. We remain a naive people. We were asleep. We have awakened. But we must now study.

Let's turn now to indirect vs direct and tie it down yet again. In purely tactical terms, direct is your enemy's face. You face him. He faces you. You each try to kill each other. All this is direct. He has two flanks and one rear. How do you get to his right, left, or rear?

The best answer is you don't, your friend does. We love ratios like 10-to-1, 5-to-1, 3-to-1, etc. But we NEVER fight unless we at least have a ratio of 2-to-1. Always think of this as yourself looking into your enemy's eyes, your friend looking at the back of his head.

Still, there is one-to-one combat, so what then? Simple. Tempt your enemy to commit to an attack and then do NOT be there where he strikes. Committed and in motion, he goes right past you, and you are at his flank or rear. Now you may attack happily.

Here's what we've missed until now. In the very idea of a fair fight, there is the idea of a fair defeat. May the best man win, we say. No. If you're not going to win, if you haven't already won, don't fight. Walk away. Prepare for victory. Find the indirect path forward.

My favorite local example is this. You find a corrupt politician and uncover his corruption. You show up at a town meeting and boldly state it. This is direct. Your wife, however, attends the same tennis club that his wife attends. She and her best friend begin scorning his wife.

But what if she's innocent and doesn't know of her husband's crimes? Okay, inform her. If she divorces him, honor to her. Also an indirect mode of attack. But the truth is she always knew, wives always do. It is we who never play the game, never fight the war to win. We're naive.

How do we allow congressmen and senators to excoriate @realDonaldTrump, after we send them to DC to support him? We're not organized. We do not have groups who send in threats of opposition to our representatives when they fail us. We never coordinate ourselves.

We play softball in a hardball world. We bring knives to the gunfight. We give up the battle before we show up on the battlefield. We're weak, and don't realize our weakness. It's time to wise up. It's time to show up. It's time to fight to win, and for that, we must study.

This is why we read Master Sun. We read him, in order to follow our leader, who is Master Sun's greatest student. We read him, in order to commence the practice of calculations in the temple of planning. Planning? Yes Sir. Planning. You cannot win without it. Go figure!

And as we learn from today's verse, the art of war is an inexhaustible cycle of indirect and direct attacks, forever circling each other, infinitely useful for our purposes. Remember, face = direct, flanks and rear = indirect. That's, as it should be, a ratio of 3-to-1.

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

99 verses completed, 323 to go. And also, be sure to purchase John Minford's translation, here:

amazon.com/Art-War-Pengui…

The local MAGA leader’s library needs three other books. The first is by my great friend, hero, and today’s greatest constitutional scholar, @shestokas. His most important work so far is:

amazon.com/Creating-Decla…

The second is available free. It is the combined Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

uscis.gov/sites/default/…

Last is my own book. I'll give you the link here, and then conclude with its ten MAGA principles:

amazon.com/America-First-…

1. Remember The Forgotten Americans
2. Rule Of Law
3. American Jobs
4. Quality Of Life For Every American
5. Heal Our Cities
6. Build The Wall
7. Make America Wealthy Again
8. Make America Strong Again
9. Make America Safe Again
10. Make America Great Again