Sun Tsu

Charlottesville

June 22, 2025

I’ve been thinking about the “Art of War” today. It has been a while since I read it; it was required reading in business school as we all sought to become “masters of the universe.” One takeaway I remember is that if you surround yourself with enemy, it will become irrational and fight you fiercely to inflict as much injury as it can.

The majority of comments in the WSJ today were what I expected. “We kicked their ass.” “Trump is a great leader.” “The world is safer today than it was two days ago”

We Americans thrive on ass kickings, don’t we? At least until the dust settles and the collateral damage starts.

I studied the photo of Trump surrounded by his brain trust of Rubio, Hegseth and Vance. My initial reaction was the JV team, the B team. But that’s wrong. They are like a middle school team. They are amped up on testosterone and nobody is going to be the adult in the room (they are scared of Trump).

I worry things are going to start to get worse. What’s stopping North Korea from giving a nuclear device to Iran? Iran is not going to cower and say they have seen the light. Closing the Strait of Hormuz is a given in my mind. And what about terrorists’ attacks — including in the United States?

I don’t think Trump is up for the fire he poured gasoline on last night. How long until he blames Biden and Obama — and his followers will say “ yeah, Biden!” Israel is fighting wars it is never going to win. It will be fighting 100 years from now.

Somehow America thinks we are the only ones who see things the right way. Haven’t we learned from history — recent history — that perspective is wrong.

I know others disagree completely with me. That’s in part why I am writing this post. To explain to myself what I believe realizing that I could be very wrong. Hell, maybe Trump will make Iran the 51st state!

On a lighter note…