Elliot Prusa
Social Studies
Mr. Walker
3/4/10
The Art of War Reflection
The Art of War reminds me of a chess game. It is all about strategy and trying to think ahead of your opponent. This book provides great life lessons and military strategies. The Art of War was written by a man named Sun-Tzu in the 6th century B.C. It is made up of thirteen chapters all speaking about different strategies of war at that time period.
In the first several chapters of the Art of war Sun Tzu talks about three main military strategies they are detail assessment and planning, waging war and strategic attacks. At first I found this book to be a bit confusing but after getting into it I began to understand what Sun Tzu was trying to say about how many variables there are in warfare. There are so many things that he could not control. But he knew how to use them for his advantage. Tzu laid out 5 main factors to success in warfare they are the Way, seasons, terrain, leadership, and management. After I began to think more in depth about this I realized how smart Tzu was. He had figured out the military keys to success 100’s of years before people began to think about in depth military strategy. This book reminded me somewhat of the Mongols when we studied them, and without these 5 key ingredients they would not have been successful.
In the second and third chapters Tzu talks about waging war and strategic attacks. After reading about his explanations of how to understand the economy of warfare and in order to be successful you need to go for the jugular, it made me realize how much of a military mastermind this guy was for someone in his day. Once again I was reminded of the Mongols when he talked about unity being another key ingredient to success and that how unity could defeat numbers. Like I mentioned earlier this book was like a game of chess, in how Tzu spoke of strategies and thinking ahead of his opponent. I really enjoyed reading the first half of this book even though it was a bit confusing at times.
No comments:
Post a Comment