When you do battle, even if you are winning, if you continue a long time it will dull your forces and blunt your edge; if you besiege a citadel, your strength will be exhausted. If you keep your armies out in the field a long time, your supplies will be insufficient.
When your forces are dulled, your edge is blunted, your strength is exhausted, and your supplies are gone, then others will take advantage of your debility and rise up. Then even if you have wise advisors you cannot make things turn out well in the end.
Therefore I have heard of military operations that were clumsy and swift, but I have never seen one that lasted a long time. It is never beneficial to a nation to have a military operation continue for a long time.
Therefore, those who are not thoroughly aware of the disadvantages of the use of arms cannot be thoroughly aware of the advantages of the use of arms.
Sun Tzu - The Art Of War, Chapter 2: Doing Battle
My opinion is that the West, especially the U.S., have been caught by just the circumstances Sun Tzu spoke of here. By wasting time and energy is a place unrelated to their true strategic interests, i.e. Iraq, they have exhausted themselves and made it very difficult to act in crises. Even one's as minor as this.
So sad. A general 2,400 years ago laid out all the basic principals of warfare. And we still do not use them.
My $0.02. Carry on.
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