Changing the paradigm

Grand Strategy IV - How America Can Prosper, by Fabius Maximus:

"You cannot eat soup with a knife.

You must first change the conditions of the problem."

Actually, he's got quite a few quotables in this one:

Whether America’s cultural “aggression” is deliberate or inadvertent is not relevant to those defending against it.

I think this brings us back to a fundamental truth...the end of the Cold War postured us, as a nation, in a position from which we were doomed to come into conflict with others. As a hyperpower, we influenced too many too much and became too easy to blame for anything that happened (or didn't happen...) just because it only seems obvious that such power gives us the ability, as a nation, to affect anything and everything. It's a false assumption, of course. But that hardly matters to our newly organized enemies, does it?

Looking for more good quotes? He throws us this one from Kung Fu as well:

Disciple Caine: Master, do we seek victory in contention?

Master Kan: Seek rather not to contend.

Disciple Caine: But shall we not then be defeated?

Master Kan: We know that where there is no contention, there is neither defeat nor victory. The supple willow does not contend against the storm, yet it survives.

From episode #1 of the television show “Kung Fu” (1972)

Moving away from Kung Fu quotes, we do get a more reasonable strategy - one simple enough that a chaotic democracy just MIGHT be able to execute it successfully:

1. Do not increase the cohesion of our enemies. Try not to make new enemies.

2. Don’t gamble. Adopt slow but sure tactics.

3. Survive until we win.

I'm a big fan of simple elegance, by the way. And I'm also a big fan of occasionally throwing out a quote to appease Dan:

Crusades are more fun, at least for those who do not actually fight them. High risk endeavors generate excitement and the prospect of great gains, and accrue power to their leaders. Until failure. Then the bills come due.