Sun Tzu's The Art of War (Enhanced DVD)

General Sun Tzu lived in China during the 5th century. He was an amazing strategist in war and often defeated opponents in ways that would be useful for those that followed his innovations.

General Sun Tzu believed in order to lead a people into war; the leader must follow a moral principle, understood by all. Then it becomes a matter of logistics, to understand the challenges of terrain, weather, and enemy movements. At the same time, it is important to maintain discipline within the troops.

General Sun Tzu was a master at deception and used psychological warfare techniques to throw the enemy into disarray. He also understood that the length of the war entailed a heavy burden of expense, yet could be conducted on a profitable basis.

General Sun Tzu advocates capturing an entire country at once and to disrupt the support of any allies. The worst thing possible is to lead the attack with incompetent generals.

Excellent fighters do not give any consideration to defeat. They carefully calculate the attack probability of success and then exploit the enemy’s vulnerabilities, and move on to victory when a tactical advantage is discovered.

When the enemy counterattacks, move the armies to regain the advantage and always leave a way for the enemy to run away and escape, which is in essence a defeat.

There are certain situations to avoid and weakness in generals that is not acceptable if success in battle is desired. When moving an army into position, it is important to see the signs of the enemy in terms of lures and trickery.

General Sun Tzu knew that motivating his men was paramount in order to achieve success. The observance of strict discipline was also critical. Punishment of soldiers who failed to follow the rules was a critical component in maintaining discipline.

General Sun Tzu recommended for generals to stop thinking about disgrace or glory and to follow the strategies most likely to result in success.