First, You Plan. Genghis Khan, Basil Liddell Hart. War Strategies.

War Strategy.

Plan, but Prepare to Regroup.

Defer Confrontation. No Loss of Honor.

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A. Genghis Khan.

Eastern warfare tactics include leaving the field. Take time to regroup.
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No Loss of Honor in melting away. The strategic withdrawal is not quitting the field. It is deferring the confrontation until more favorable conditions may develop. Highly efficient.
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Western warfare says stand up and fight. Now.

Even the cowardly Lion knew the posture to take, fists up, feet dancing, put-em-up. See ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxTy3JK_qgA/ Even if down we go, put up your dukes. Confrontation, immediate contest. That is the fast time-line to determine who won, who lost. Zero sum. Whatever thing you win, means I lose that thing, and that is it. Win and lose are quantifiable. See ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-sum

Eastern warfare: This is a different approach. Defer the confrontation. There is no loss of honor in that. Eastern warfare often provides a different result from Western thinking. If you see that you are outnumbered, and probably will fail, or may, just disperse, preserve your numbers, and regroup later. That is a long timeline. No "arena." Wait out your enemy, take your time. Use indirection.

The East is creative. No rigid mindsets. An example, from the Mongols, shows some of the most effective fighters in history. But they were flexible thinkers, not following some lockstep chivalry notions of the time. No code said that this group wore red, that group wore blue.

They used big or small groups as needed, faked withdrawals, set ruses, ambushed, and raided. See Medieval Warfare, Mongol tactics, at ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_warfare#Mongols_in_the_West/.

So, Who is Civilized.

Go back to "Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World" review at://anthropology.net/user/kambiz_kamrani/reviews/genghis_khan_and_the_making_of_the_modern_world/

Learn how Genghis Khan won by following the basics: He

a) prepared and then
c) engaged, and then
c) followed-up.

See also://www.mongolianculture.com/Excerpts%20Jack%20Weatherford.htm.

Genghis Khan looks more civilized than we do, in terms of the planning, the use of good people in the subject peoples, having his own people ready to move in where the slots so required.

How does that apply to us?

Our world is different, and the same, at once.

• Mongols: They were wise beyond our willingness to acknowledge, because they were invaders who won, and we want to downplay that. They are not religious extremists plotting against us, however, and we are not Medievals, or European Kings' armies limited by ideologies and behavior mindsets trapping our heads. We do have our own extremists in many areas, but the lessons for today escape the bounds of our usual mindset and strategy.

• Genghis Kahn and others did not succeed for so long for nothing. Eastern warfare tactics. Eastern military strategy. Pragmatic, sensible, and it works. Don't waste your time on macho. Redefine strategy. Get what you want - no question. But you are permitted to bide your time. It is valid strategy, not weakness.

Torture.

And, the Mongols killed-slaughtered many, in gross ways; but they did not torture. Kill but no torture.

"The Mongols did not torture, mutilate or maim, but their enemies did." See://www.fsmitha.com/h3/h11mon.htm/ quoting from "Genghis Khan and the Mongols."

Do a "find" search for torture and the portion is there. We and our current adversaries are less honorable than the Mongols? FN1. People were killed brutally, in great masses. But the individual, tortured by another individual? No. Amazing. Read the book.

The culture: This site notes that the Mongols felt that God gave them the world, and that their intention was to be a colonizer of Europe, the barbarians.

Mongols introduced the concept of freedom of religion to Europe, and taxed the conquered people - the 10% looks like a tithe. The people retained rights, however. The Mongols were their overlords, but the people continued in place.

Later, the Roman church would initiate the tithe; but they held that unbelievers, heretics have no rights, and that set the stage for the Inquisition. See European History 1220-1289 at //www.telusplanet.net/public/dgarneau/euro53.htm. That approach to the conquered, to declare them anathema, was foreign to the Mongols who would rather use their economic contributions than beat them down. Is that so?



B. Basil Liddell Hart


A British soldier in World War I. Developed theories of indirection in warfare, for infantry tactics. See ://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWliddel.htm/


Lessons:

• Direct attacks do not work.
• Use indirection.
• Upset the enemy's equilibrium.

See biography at://www.spiritus-temporis.com/basil-liddell-hart/


These ideas from Genghis Khan and Basil Liddell Hart have been with us for centuries, and then decades. Shall we try them?