MODERN WARFARE

A ‘TWEET’ ABOUT A PHONE CALL

Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Leonidas, Ptolemy, Genghis Khan, Vlad the Impaler, Sun Tzu, Spartacus, William Wallace, Atila the Hun, Yue Fei, Miyamoto Musashi, Richard the Lion Heart, Napoleon Bonaparte down to Muammar Gaddafi, all these warriors employed different strategies in fighting the war of their time and in most cases they were faced with new challenges and had to device and reinvent new methods in order to achieve victory, be it conventional or not. History bears records of how Alexander the Great placed his soldiers in formations never before seen by the men of his days (and those military formations are still studied and employed in warfare and military schools today), we read of Leonidas, a warrior-king who striped off all his armor in order to have a perfect shot at Xerxes, Genghis ate the flesh of his enemies in order to send fear and terror into anyone who heard of him, Napoleon burnt down the only bridge linking his soldiers to land in an effort to let them know that it’s victory or nothing. All the drastic unconventional steps taken by the warriors at those instances were necessitated by the situation at hand and they had to rise up to the occasion using whichever method they thought will bring victory and they seldom failed. As we also know, and as proven by these great men, every challenge brings its own package and the method with which it must be approached need also be packaged anew, just like the Biblical saying “new wine cannot be stored in old bottle” so are challenges, strategies and even solutions. Although most of these great men have met their “waterloo” (most of them before the place was ever discovered), Napoleon will eventually go down in history as the warrior that reminds us of that word.

If Sun Tzu were here today, THE ART OF WAR will have a chapter titled ‘Tweet about a phone call’ and will run into volumes that most of us will probably be exhausted at the first volume. Coming from a different age, a time when animal skins and tunics were used for clothing, raw metals used as weapons and trumpets sound whenever a “stranger” is approaching miles away, today he will be surprised to see modern warriors clad in three piece suits, shaking hands, wearing wide fake smiles and dinning with the enemy at different ‘Peace Summits’ as they discussing how to go to battle with each other ‘peacefully’. It will be amazing to see how over time, man developed strategies based on old laid down rules. From blackmail to spying, manipulations-‘mind games’ and even bluff.

Last week, a single tweet about a phone call by Donald Trump, a man yet to be sworn into office, disrupted the balance of the world (oh, sorry I mean China), but seriously, with the population, fast rising economy, fast spreading language and culture/food, we might just admit that that country is the world. That, my friend is what that ‘tweet’ was all about. I tried thinking like an American President-elect, who broke all “known protocol and status quo” by emerging winner of one of the most “media decided” elections in history, I tried seeing things from the angle of “since they did not see me coming and I came in like a wrecking ball, I might as well continue wrecking so they will stay blind till am gone”. Let me simplify this, China is fast becoming the world power and that is because of the strength of her export (I know you will say is the population, resources and Government policies-Communism), by goodness you are right but if there is no export of human, capital and material resources, what will be the benefit of having them? And as you know the biggest markets are in the United States followed by Africa (my Nigeria taking the lead). That said, Trump being the Trump we know, cannot take that, not if he wants to “Make America Great Again”. He had to do something and honestly I think he had planned to tell China “YOU ARE FIRED” long before now, although he said “China is not a market economy. They haven’t played by the rules, and I know it’s time that they’re going to start”, he needed to send a message, which must be crystal. How will he engage in this ‘modern warfare’ effectively without using any of the coded nukes his opponent said he is “too unstable to be around”? Pretty sure he thought hard for a long time, then it hit him, Taiwan…but how? Cut the long story short, he decided to use the best tool of the modern era- social media (a tool that declared his opponent winner of a yet-to-be conducted election). He went into his arsenal and discovered that he has in fact been holding the best weapon ever, a PHONE and one of the many apps he uses well, Twitter. So he decided to ‘tweet’ about a call from the President of Taiwan, an Island that officially bears “Republic of China” and is just one hundred and eighty kilometers away from “Peoples Republic of China”, and a country that still claims sovereignty over the Island and does not recognize its government talk more of a President.

By the way, what was said and the duration of that call is yet unknown except for the fact that “she called to congratulate me…” So for the arguments sake, I want to believe there was a call and the tweet is not in any way the application of a rule from Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power. The effect of that tweet? Read the papers or watch the news. The message was sent and it accomplished the purpose for which it was sent and in plain English it translates thus “I am going to make sure you, China, know where you belong by making sure your export remains with you and I will use Taiwan, an Island you don’t recognize as a country to enforce that and your ships may never see my shores again”.

The last call by a US leader to Taiwan leaders was in 1979 so he broke yet another protocol. I sincerely hope Guinness Book of Records are noticing the plenty “protocol breakage” by this modern warrior because he surely deserves a record.

Anyway, what does a Nigerian stand to benefit from a tweet about a phone call? Hmmm, let me put it in his words “my administration would focus on two rules: Buy American and hire American” because he knows that is the only way to “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN”. If only my Nigeria can emulate this concept (since most developing nations emulate virtually everything from the US) I know how far we will go, and that again is another reason China is MAD about a ‘tweet’, they know if America buys and hire America, Nigeria will COPY but this time “BUY NIGERIA and HIRE NIGERIA” which will mean the downfall of the modern Han Dynasty.

Now China is restructuring and re-strategizing on how to approach the battle field. Don’t forget, the best form of defense they say is to attack now we know the first arrow has been fired, let’s be waiting to see what will exit the quiver next and from what direction. Whether the tweet is real or just a bluff, it will be too expensive a gamble to play and it’s a bluff not worth calling.

Finally, I wish my Nigeria can ask and say what his supporters ask… “Who cares what China wants?” “Let China worry about what Americans want.”