Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ukma!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!military
From: eli%zgavva@uunet.UU.NET (Elias Israel)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: People's Liberation Army
Message-ID: <7342@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 10 Jun 89 05:40:41 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
Organization: Interactive Systems, Boston
Lines: 37
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: Elias Israel <eli%zgavva@uunet.UU.NET>
In article <7247@cbnews.ATT.COM> ssc-vax!sml@beaver.cs.washington.edu
(Stuart Lewis) writes:
>I just heard this a.m. from C.B.S. radio that the various armies are
>still closely structured after the old fuedal, war-lord type of
>organization with each army particularly loyal to their provicial or
>geographic region and each armies commanders garner a great deal of
>power and influence.  They also may or may not carry out orders if
>they think they are powerful enough to buck them (obviously so,
>since this has already happened).  

What little information I have suggests that this "arrangement" dates
back as far as the period known as "the Warring States", which began
in 453 B.C.

Also, the notion that Military commanders need not necessarily obey
the orders of the monarch dates back to about the same period and comes
from the work of Sun Tzu, a subtle and brilliant strategist who wrote
in _The Art of War_:

	"Your servant has already received your appointment as
	 Commander and when the commander is at the head of the army he
	 need not accept all the sovereign's orders"

According to Sun Tzu, it was the task of the Politicians to rule the
state, but the task of the Army to defend it and they must do so with
absolutely final authority. (Contrast this with our own government which
has insisted in the past in choosing targets for the military and generally
interfering in the conduct of wars.)

Elias Israel		   | "Justice, n. A commodity which in more or
Interactive Systems Corp.  | less adulterated condition the State sells
Boston, MA		   | to the citizen as a reward for his allegiance,
..!ima!haddock!eli	   | taxes, and personal service."
			   |     -- Ambrose Bierce, _The Devil's Dictionary_