I just started reading a book called “The Art of War” by an ancient Chinese warlord named Sun Tzu. For those like me who study ancient warfare, I highly recommend this book.

I was surprised at how simple some of the concepts were that Master Sun talked about. (I figured it would be complicated, being war and all.) And as I was thinking about how anyone could wage war poorly if it were this simple, I realized that we are currently under the guidance of someone who has, big time. President George W. Bush.

Now I have never attached myself to any political party, but all politics aside, Bush’s terrier Mrs. Beazley could run our army better than he is. From the very beginning, Bush has committed every war faux pas imaginable.

“It is better to keep an army intact than to destroy it,” said Master Sun. He explained that if a war could be fought without use of an army, then that is the best course of action. We could have easily gone after Saddam Hussein without making a big stink about it so that the whole world, including Saddam, wouldn’t know. It would have made the difference between finding him in his palace and finding him in a spider hole. But Bush chose to use an army.

“When you do battle, even if you are winning, if you continue for a long time it will dull your forces and blunt your edge,” said Master Sun. We have been fighting this war for a while and it just seems to get harder. Soldiers are tired of fighting, mothers are tired of praying their children will come home safe and the American people are tired of paying for it all.

“When a country is impoverished by military operations, it is because of transporting supplies to a distant place,” said Master Sun. Iraq is a far away, and the reason our deficit continues is because we keep sending resources over to Iraq. Some argue that war creates jobs and will help pull us out of the recession like in WWII, but we came out of that recession by selling arms to Britain, not by expending resources on the battlefield.

But the war goes on. We win battles here and there, but are we really victorious? “I am a person who looks long-term, and I recognize the path we need to take,” said Bush. “Nonetheless, what matters most is to reach the destination.” But Master Sun said, “The important thing in a military operation is victory, not persistence.” Bush says we should be “steadfast,” but if it’s taking this long we should pull out and reorganize.

Iraqis are free, Saddam is captured, a cruel sadistic regime is dead, but so are 1,652 allied soldiers and 17,000 Iraqi civilians. There should have only been one casualty: Saddam. It seems Bush is using cowboy warfare where you run out into the street and start shooting. That may have worked in Tombstone, but this is an entire country we’re dealing with. As Master Sun said, “Confrontation is done directly, victory is gained by surprise.”