The Best Bluff Is No Bluff (Sun Tzu 3:2) (Nehemiah 2:17- 6:19; Eccl. 9:11-12)
So if you buy the concept bright,
Of keeping whole each segment – tight
Upon its heels comes this insight –
That winning battles can’t be right.For if you win with force on force,
You win the day – and more, of course,
But they are not intact with that,
But smashed, destroyed, and the lying flat.A general who takes that tack,
Is not that good – for thinking that
Betrays he does not understand,
Intact is better for the land.One hundred victories all won
Of battles, wars, despite the fun
Of victory parades and such,
The skill displayed’s not very much.For better to subject the foe
Without a fight – though no one knows
What work was done averting pain
And bloodshed, to surrender gain.To render helpless, neutralize
Your enemy, yet no one dies,
Is greatest good – pure excellence –
The pinnacle of common sense.The highest way to pull this off,
Is while they strategize – to balk
Their plans – place make superior,
And make them feel inferior.Alliances come after that –
Use yours, but all of theirs attack;
Disrupt and crush joint-enterprise;
Their loss may see surrender rise.And last of all in strategy,
Attack with force the enemy,
So when they see they’re overwhelmed,
They’ll back right down, give up their ground.An army placed upon a field,
Is threat enough to make some yield;
Of course, if not, make haste – attack;
But lowest strategy is that.Old Nehemiah faced some foes
Who did all this, the reader knows,
And yet, backed down, did not attack –
Like Nehemiah planned all that.Attack on plans, alliances,
Intimidation all were his;
But Nehemiah persevered –
Sanballat blinked – away he veered.Just fifty days plus two to build
The wall – no worker-persons killed;
We see that bluff can work both ways –
Just like in Nehemiah’s days.navigation