Written over 2,000 years ago by a Chinese warrior and philosopher, this statement is still true today. But military action is now even more important to the nation, especially to this nation, the United States. In this century, in which the United States has been a clear military leader, warfare and war forms have changed dramatically. New technologies applied to battlefield management have included telephone, radio, radar, laser, computer, and satellite. As we approach the next millennia, the theorists and policy makers of modern war are naming these new war forms “Information Warfare.” But although the means to wage war have changed, war is still as Sun Tzu said, “the ground of death and life, the path of survival and destruction.” It remains “imperative” that we examine the military actions, but moreover the military doctrine, of the United States.
 
As Sun Tzu said, knowledge of ones enemy’s abilities is a prerequisite to ones own capabilities. This is as true for the forces of dominance within the U.S. military establishment, who wish to invoke the dictum “knowledge is power,” as it is to the forces of resistance outside of and in opposition to the military establishment, who wish to do the same.