The Art of War

An Update: Well now our fearless leader is intervening in the anarchy and slaughter in the Ivory Coast. Has he gone insane or just drinking in the ambrosia of Presidential power?

It took the Big O. nine days to decide to talk to the American people about why we are in Libya. In less than an hour he could have read Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War,” in its entirety and never gotten involved in Libya at all. There is a lot more to running a nation than there is to organizing a community. Here are a few lines from Sun Tzu that could have saved us hundreds of millions of dollars a day and spared a lot of Libyan lives. As the old saying goes, “A man who won’t read is no better than a man who can’t read.”

“1. Sun Tzu said: In the operations of war, where there are in the field a thousand swift chariots, as many heavy chariots, and a hundred thousand mail-clad soldiers, with provisions enough to carry them a thousand li, the expenditure at home and at the front, including entertainment of guests, small items such as glue and paint, and sums spent on chariots and armor, will reach the total of a thousand ounces of silver per day. Such is the cost of raising an army of 100,000 men.

2. When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men’s weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be damped. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength.

3. Again, if the campaign is protracted, the resources of the State will not be equal to the strain.

4. Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardor damped, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. Then no man, however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue.

5. Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been associated with long delays.

6. There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.”

What we have for a commander in chief is also described by Sun Tzu in rather disparaging words. 18. When the general is weak and without authority; when his orders are not clear and distinct; when there are no fixed duties assigned to officers and men, ……………., the result is utter disorganization. Translation by Dr. Lionel Giles. Ca. 1910

Blocking With the Blade

I did some editing of this and hopefully it reads better now! I had grabbed an older unedited version by mistake. Blocking With the Blade: Part One This and next week's posting are taken from my coming book "When Two Tigers Fight." Unless you can expertly perform rhythm-of-one-techniques (block-strike in one move) you should always block with your knife blade, not your empty-hand or arm! I have said it before but it is worth repeating, always apply steel against flesh, not vice versa. That sounds simple enough in theory but it is not as easy in the heat of practice or a fight. Let us consider three basic zones for blocking or attacking. 1)Upper, top of the head to the solar plexus. 2)Middle, the solar plexus to the crotch 3)Lower, the crotch to the feet Learning how to block with your knife is essential, but those of you who have trained in an empty-hand martial art you may find it unnatural and difficult at first. If you are performing solo drills with a live blade you must practice the blocks very carefully to prevent cutting yourself. It might sound stupid but now your one arm is longer than the other by the length of your knife blade. When working with a partner always wear the appropriate protective gear and use blunted blades (not taped up live blades) to prevent injury to the hands or tendons of the forearm wear arm guards at least on your knife arm. When using double-edged blades for blocking, absolute concentration and coordination are necessary, they literally cut both ways. S0 pay attention and stay focused! The biggest difficulty in blocking with the knife is determining in a split second whether your blade should be positioned tip up or tip down to intercept the incoming attack. If you are using reverse grip it will always be oriented tip down. The difference is critical and dependent upon your height, and the height and angle of the incoming attack. Don't forget that you can change your body height by rising up or dropping down at the knees. With the advanced practitioner, the blocks might not rely totally on the steel blade. If you are using a small folder for instance, you might find yourself blocking with your hand and/or forearm as an extension of your blade against your attacker’s arm (not his knife). Here's a hint, research the fencing term "glissade." Thinking “blocking with the blade,” rather than with your empty-hand/arm, will help you improve your blade/arm positioning. The last thing you want to have happen is to throw a picture-perfect block with a too short blade and find the attacker’s knife whizzing right past your block and lodging in your throat, stomach, or leg. There are several basic rules when using your knife for blocking. These rules also change depending on the grip you are using. If you are holding your knife in any of the blade-forward grips, and your attacker targets: 1) Your upper zone, block with your knife positioned tip up. At times you may use tip down in the upper zone. 2) Your lower zone, block with your knife positioned tip down Next post we will look at reverse grip and the middle zones for blocking. Til then play safe and practice blocking with your blade, steel on steel, or steel against flesh.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Doesn't this make you feel just a little bit uneasy?

An Apology

Dear readers I must apologize. I was wrong and this is not a war. The Obama administration prefers to use the term "kinetic" military action. (What the hell does that mean?) I wonder what term Muamar Gadhafy prefers? And by the way how many different ways can you spell Gadhafy? It must set a Guinness record for multiple spellings of one terrorists name. OOPS can't use the word terrorist either, or I will have to apologize for that too. We are so PC while bombing the shit out of a country. OOPS probably shouldn't use the "S" word either. Well its an awful mess over there Mr. "O" and you did not inherit this mess from GW. Its all yours, all $100 million per day!

No More War!

Now we are at war with Libya. Why? To support democratic reforms? We are supposed to be "A republic, for which it stands," not a democracy. But this is the pledge that the president personally disapproves of. To enforce American Imperialism? To preserve our access to the oil? Now I hear POTUS professing this to be American Policy! Is it? Did he get Congressional approval to enter into another war against a foreign, sovereign nation? Isn't this galavanting, globe-trotting president the same one who promised to get us out of war in the middle east? Isn't he the same one who wanted to try Bush and Cheney for war crimes for doing the same thing? This is the man who said he did not want the world to "be afraid of us." Funny how a little thing like power, like the thirst for blood, once tasted is unshakeable in some men. Lets just say no more wars. Give the power back to the two parties of government not currently functioning, the supreme court and congress.

Impeach Obama

Forumites - Idiots?

Sometimes I just cringe when I hear people say really opinionated and stupid things. I’ve been known to do it myself and I have no excuse. How about this for a response to why you should not use a weapon to defend yourself or others? It came from a firearms forum.

“Just for your information, if you try to use a knife against someone, and you have not been extensively trained in how to use it, you’re probably going to get hurt really bad.”

I guess he is saying if you do not know how to box you should not use your fists either? Or maybe he means if the other guy has a knife or gun, and you are untrained, you’re better off using your bare fists than a knife or a gun? I am really glad he shared this invaluable “information” with us. Once again we see the idiotic assumption that some karate dude is going to take away your knife and stick in places where the sun doesn’t shine. Really! Wow, now I am rethinking whether to leave my EDC folder at home so that doesn’t happen to me. (note heavy sarcasm) This is some seriously bad juju! Here I always thought that a man with a weapon was more than the equal of a man unarmed. This is probably because I didn’t realize how many counter-knife experts are out there walking the streets. Idiots, we’re surrounded by idiots! All they need is a modem and a mouse to become experts.

Ask any martial arts instructor when the last time was they got hurt. They will probably tell you it was when they were working with a new guy who did something totally unexpected. I can tell a skilled fighter by the way he moves, and be reasonably sure where and how he will move. It is the untrained guy who will hit you with a cut or thrust from out of nowhere. Why? Because he didn’t know any better! Nobody taught him that he couldn’t do what he just did. So take the above bit of forum advice/information with a huge grain of salt. Trust me, carrying a weapon and not needing it, is better than needing it and not having it. Being trained is better than not, most of the time. Training can also become indoctrination, which is not good. We’ll talk about that difference at another time.

Johnathan Mitchell strikes again

Here is a second knife by Johnathan that I could not resist buying. It is a beautiful kiridashi, basically a Japanese utility knife, but done up in grand style. It has a double hollow ground chisel ground blade. The back edge is beveled but not sharpened. The curvature of the blade is pure elegance. His hamon is striking and bold. The handle is wrapped in black samegawa and then covered with a traditional cord wrap lightly epoxied. A silver dragon menuki graces the handle. The sheath is a slip of kydex, light and well fitted. Keep an eye on this guy cause he is doing great stuff. http://www.mitchellknives.com/ Is it sharp? What do you think, it's like a razor.

Pray for Japan

Please offer up prayers to whichever God you honor for the People and Nation of Japan. May all of the nations of the world join together to come to their aid.

A Travesty of Justice

Well If you followed either of the topics "Project Gunwalker," or "Project Fast and Furious," you are now aware of the travesty of the ATFE losing control over more than a thousand Assault rifles which they allowed to be sold to the Mexican Drug Cartel. One of those rifles was used to kill Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. You can google his name and find out more. My condolences to his friends, loved ones, and family. What amazes me about this is a week ago my nephew was refused the right to purchase a WW-II bolt action rifle because his record showed multiple DUIs, no crimes of violence, no firearms offenses but no hunting rifle for him. This was refused by the same dept that allowed, even encouraged straw sales of the many hundreds of AK-47s to known buyers for the Mexican drug lords. Agent Terry R.I.P. America, WAKE-UP.

If you really want to feel incensed read this post. Agent Terry was armed with a 12 gauge shotgun loaded with rubber bullets!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2644259/posts You may have to cut and paste this link to get it to work.

GUNWALKER

The truth is that American Border Patrolmen are being killed by illegal aliens shooting weapons procured in the US. Is that the whole truth? Time for a walk down Memory Lane. How many of you remember Secretary of State Clinton’s visit with the president of Mexico? Do you remember her vow to take action to reduce the transport of illegal arms across our border and into Mexico? Now, how many of you remember Janet Napolitano’s assertion that the border is safer than ever? Do you know that the BATFE has requested special, additional powers to harass American gunshop owners and gun buyers along the border? Are you interested in the truth? It appears that the current administration isn’t. But I’ll let you decide. Google the following two topics and see how you feel about increased gun control over law-abiding Americans vs arms flowing to the Mexican drug cartel.

“Operation Gunwalker” or “Operation Fast and Furious”

Neat Knife Site

It’s amazing how we sometimes meet people. In the past meeting new people happened either vicariously, by post, or in person. The internet has vastly changed the way we meet and interact with people. Recently I had an inquiry by a martial arts teacher from the other side of the world. He wanted to buy one of our Cobra Fighting Knives. It was going to be difficult for him to get it shipped. He will soon be picking it up direct from the maker in Auckland, NZ.

At nearly the same time I had a gentleman directed to me by a second friend in NZ. I mean how many people living in rural NY have three friends in NZ?) Anyway, this new cyber acquaintance, Dan Policastro, maintains a website dedicated to knives and knife people and he asked to interview me. His curiosity was based on comments he heard about my knife designs.

If you like knives, you will find his website interesting, and the super interview he did with me is posted there. By the way, I am blaming Dan for my recent purchase of a Benchmade® 860 Bedlam folder. I read his review of this knife on his blog and it convinced me to buy one. His review of the folder was very accurate and helped me make an educated purchase. Go take a look at his reviews. http://bladereviews.com/ Don’t blame me if you end up buying a knife though!

Here is my new Bedlam