Veteran’s Corner

Tom Krabbenhoft

It appears someone in China has read and been following the writings of one of their own, Sun Tzu.

Tzu is perhaps the greatest forward thinker of all time, and deserves more credit in history.

Tzu’s philosophy is “war is costly and ruinous for the state”. He has six principles, to obtain victory without war.

1. Win all without fighting.

2. Avoid strength.

3. Attack weakness.

4. Deception and foreknowledge.

5. Speed and preparation.

6. Shape your opponent and character based on leadership.

Knowing and recognizing an enemy before they become an enemy, is a sound military tenet. Look at how busy China has been in the last month.

We all know about the balloons that embarrassed and harassed our military and civilian leaders.

Recently Chairman Xi of China visited Russia. As neighbors you’d think this would be a common occurrence, it’s not. Both countries have generally ruled by Iron fisted dictators they’ve always been rivals. Knocking the US out of first place on the World stage has united these two countries.

China has also brokered a HUGE peace between Saudi Arabia and Iran. These two countries have been in contention as the most influential and important Islamic country. The Saudis are Sunni and Iran is Shia. The Saudis have strongly been US allies in the region. Our relationship with the Saudis has allowed us influence in the area. Our relationship with the Saudis have been shattering slowly since the “Arab Spring”.

BRIC Alliance was coined in 2001 and has been gaining strength. Brazil, Russia, India, South Africa and China are in the Alliance. Saudi Arabia and Mexico are rumored to have applications to join as well. The BRIC Alliance has been proponents of adopting the Yuan (Chinese Dollar) as the monetary standard. If this happens it would devalue the dollar tremendously. With inflation skyrocketing here this scenario inches ever closer.

North Korea, China is seemingly the only country that can influence NK and its chubby tyrant. Recently the Japanese prime Minister visited Ukraine. NK picked up missile launching again, no doubt with a wink from China. China and Korea have had fierce differences with Japan for hundreds of years. The Japanese PM has not been to a war zone since WW2. No doubt this trip angered the Chinese.

If you look at what China has been up to the last few months, they have been following Sun Tzus playbook. In 40 years it’s said Tzu never lost a war or a battle. The Chinese are winning and not firing a single shot.

We need to wake up.

Send your veteran-related items to me at 11btwk@gmail.com.