The Useless Tree

Sun Tzu

  • The Tao of Gators

        A commenter, "Dave of the Coonties," over at WaPo’s Achenblog, noted that I had not yet analyzed, from the point of view of Sun Tzu, the University of Florida’s victory in the college football championship.  I am happy… Continue reading

  • Is Sun Tzu Wrong About Speed?

         Here at Williams, where I work, we have a "Winter Study," an inter-semester short term, just the month of January, during which students take one condensed "course".  (I have a variety of gripes about Winter Study which I… Continue reading

  • Knowing the Enemy

        George Packer has a good article in this week’s New Yorker (alas not on-line), "Knowing the Enemy."  He considers the "anthropology of insurgency" in Iraq, focusing on an Australian military intellectual, David Kilcullen, currently working for the US… Continue reading

  • Thinking About Tet

        Dan Drezner and Kevin Drum both post today on the comparison of the current state of the Iraq war and the Tet offensive during the Vietnam war, which was brought up recently by Thomas Friedman, and President Bush’s… Continue reading

  • Sun Tzu on Intelligence and the Failure in Iraq

        This story ran on the front pages of both the NYT and the WaPo this morning: The war in Iraq has become a primary recruitment vehicle for violent Islamic extremists, motivating a new generation of potential terrorists around… Continue reading

  • The Extraordinary and the Normal

         While we’ve got the Art of War out, let’s take a look at this WaPo story: But the initial progress has been tempered by friction between the team of elite [US Special Forces]troops and the U.S. Army’s battalion… Continue reading

  • Sun Tzu agrees with John McCain

         The torture issue (or should I say embarassment) seems to be coming to a head in the US Senate.  Happily, several Republican Senators have staked out a position that would limit the Bush Administrations desire to use "alternate… Continue reading

  • Sun Tzu and the Airplane Bomb Plot

            Today we have what appears to be a significant victory against global terrorist networks: the arrest of a ring of people in Britain who were preparing to blow up airplanes.   It is noteworthy that this was the… Continue reading

  • Robert Pape Channels Sun Tzu

        In an op-ed in today’s NYT, Robert Pape notes: ISRAEL has finally conceded that air power alone will not defeat Hezbollah. Over the coming weeks, it will learn that ground power won’t work either. The problem is not… Continue reading

  • More Sun Tzu on the Mideast War

        My friend and neighbor, Abu Aardvark, has a great post today on the failures of US strategy for the current fighting in Lebanon.  By not pressing for a ceasefire immediately, the US has isolated itself as the sole… Continue reading