Laying Plans

I lied. I'm going to do my blog this semester on The Art of War. Flags of our Fathers was a good book, but it was a more of a story about the lives of the men and not really about the battle.

The first chapter of Sun Tzu's book is on the laying of plans. He begins by laying out five constant factors of war. These are moral laws, heaven, earth, the commander, and method and discipline. Even though this was written in the 6th century BC I think these factors have a direct correlation to the US Army today. Tzu describes moral law as the ability of troops to follow their leader completely. This can be seen today in the Warrior Ethos which are centered upon never quitting and placing the mission first aka following the leader. Heaven is basically the weather which is always a consideration when planning missions. Earth is the equivalent of terrain analysis; another important factor in a leaders planning process. The commander talks about virtues which are roughly equivalent to the Army Values of today. Finally, Tzu touches upon method and discipline which can be seen in the chain of command.