Why you shouldn't read The Art of War

[MaltonNecromancer]

It wouldn't work in real life, no one would get on the ships.

I believe they would: Communist Russian tactics? The Battle of Stalingrad? The average Russian soldier had a life expectancy of 24 hours on arrival. Eurisko fought wars exactly like Russia; you just take a million peasants, give them rifles and cheap tanks and drown the ****s in their blood. You see, the thing about soldiers is that they follow orders. If you're told to get on the ship, you have to get on the ship. I think you'll find a great many service personnel are engaged out in wars today with substandard equipment. You take the government's penny, you don't have a choice about how you get to earn it.

Also, I believe it was actually Sun-Tzu who pointed out that if you have numerical superiority, you will win. So Eurisko isn't quite as unique in it's strategic ability as the author believes. Basically, the article seems to have been compiled by someone who had military philosophy and strategy described to them, rather than reading about it themselves. Some nice observations let down by a lack of basic research.