already <\/em>are at war. The only question is what the next stage of the conflict looks like.<\/p>\n“Iran has called for the annihilation of Israel and has armed its allies in Lebanon to the teeth with missiles and other weapons to make good on its goal. Iran claims its pursuit of nuclear energy is peaceful but few believe that. Israel, meanwhile, muses publicly about attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities, as it did those of Iraq and Syria. Most observers believe that Israel is behind the sabotage of Iranian facilities that has already taken place, including assassinations of Iranian scientists.”<\/p>\n
“Some Israeli and American officials say that Israel is getting ready to attack Iran while others deny it. I’m confused.”<\/p>\n
“You should be! The purpose of those contradictory statements is to sow confusion. War is deception. The public sees only the product of deceit but not behind the curtain. We don’t know the reality.”<\/p>\n
“Can you predict what happens next?”<\/p>\n
“Only that, if the two sides are any good, it is unpredictable. Those who keep the enemy guessing win wars. Those who behave as expected march to defeat, like the Romans at Cannae.”<\/p>\n
“Do you have any advice?”<\/p>\n
“Yes: don’t listen to advisers.”<\/p>\n
“So, only trust yourself?”<\/p>\n
“No, never trust yourself.”<\/p>\n
“Isn’t that a contradiction?”<\/p>\n
“War is paradox.”<\/p>\n
“No wonder the Romans found you slippery, oh, wise one.”<\/p>\n
“Like children, the Romans saw only the elephants charging their front lines. They never noticed the common soldiers sneaking up on their rear.”<\/p>\n
“Is that what victory will take in the war between Iran and Israel — superior deception?”<\/p>\n
“You are seeing elephants again. War is never a matter of just one thing.”<\/p>\n
“So, victory is multifaceted?”<\/p>\n
“Now you sound like a cut rate lecture circuit salesman.”<\/p>\n
Hannibal’s personality, sharp in every sense of the word, was beginning to take shape. I tried to draw him out: “Student of strategy,” I said, “Enlighten us! Teach us! We need your wisdom, oh matchless one!”<\/p>\n
“Maybe later,” he said. “Now I must go and sacrifice a calf to the god Melqart.”<\/p>\n
And with that, Hannibal turned briskly and left.<\/p>\n
TO BE CONTINUED<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"excerpt","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[9,11,396,12,13,15,16,19],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barrystrauss.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1050"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barrystrauss.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barrystrauss.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barrystrauss.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barrystrauss.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/barrystrauss.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1050\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barrystrauss.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barrystrauss.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barrystrauss.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}