In this section Tzu focuses on the cost of war. He claims that a quick victory should be the goal of war; "there is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare." However, his strategy has been largely ignored in the Iraq War and we are now seeing the consequences. Public support for the war is waning and the cost is draining the already poor economy.
Another focus of this section was the idea of foraging materials from the enemy. The idea is that it is more valuable to use resources from the enemy because then you still have yours at home or in reserve. However, I also believe this tactic has been ignored in the Iraq War and for good reason. This is not the typical war fought against a country, but rather it is being fought against an insurgency group within the country. In order to win the war the Iraqi people have to be won-over and if we were to exploit their resources this would never happen.
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