又中又英 - The Art Of War | 褚簡寧
China’s ancient military strategist Sun Tzu, credited with writing The Art of War on how to win wars, is respected by military strategists even in today’s world of modern warfare. One of his famous quotes was “All warfare is based on deception”. The noun “deception” means hiding the truth to trick others or to gain an advantage. President Donald Trump and his military strategists used deception when the US bombed three nuclear sites in Iran last week. The New York Times used the headline “Military ruses” to describe the deception. The word “ruse” means a trick intended to deceive (verb) someone.
Trump’s military ruse began when he said he would decide within two weeks whether to bomb Iran or not. But he had already decided and ordered the bombing less than two days after saying he would decide in two weeks. To further deceive, US military strategists sent B-2 stealth bombers flying west, seemingly to the US territory of Guam to make Iran believe an attack would come from further away. The US deliberately made it possible for public flight trackers to track the stealth bombers. But seven B-2 stealth bombers were secretly flying east at the same time, closer to Iran.
A stealth bomber is a bomb-carrying warplane designed to be difficult for radar or other surveillance systems to detect it. The deception made it possible for the seven stealth bombers to hit Iran’s nuclear sites with a sucker punch. The word “sucker” used this way means someone who can be easily deceived. A sucker punch is an unexpected punch by someone. It seems like US military strategists may have read Sun Tzu’s The Art of War!
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中國古代戰略家孫武，被認為是撰寫《孫子兵法》教人怎樣打勝仗的作者，備受軍事策略家所尊崇，即使放諸現今的戰爭世界之中。他其中一句有名的話是「兵者，詭道（deception）也。」所謂的「詭道」（deception，名詞）是指隱藏真相，以迷惑、欺騙他人或去謀求利益。上星期美國轟炸伊朗3處核設施，總統特朗普和他的軍事策略家正是運用了詭詐（deception）之道。《紐約時報》用上“Military ruses”這個頭條去形容這個騙術（deception）。Ruse是指意圖蒙騙（deceive，動詞）某人的詭計。
特朗普的軍事詭計（military ruses）是始於他說，他會在兩星期內決定是否轟炸伊朗。然而，在他說會在兩星期內決定後不足兩天，他已經決定好和下令轟炸。為了進一步欺騙（deceive），美國軍事戰略家派了B-2隱形戰略轟炸機（stealth bombers）飛往西面，看似要到美國屬地關島，去令伊朗相信這次襲擊會來自較遠的地方。美國刻意讓公眾飛行追蹤器追蹤到那些隱形轟炸機（stealth bombers），但同一時間已有7架B-2隱形轟炸機（stealth bombers）悄悄飛往東面，靠近伊朗。
A stealth bomber是一款載有炸彈的軍機，其設計為雷達或其他監視系統所難以偵測到的。這個詭計（deception）令7架隱形轟炸機（stealth bombers）得以成功偷襲突擊（sucker punch）伊朗的核設施。Sucker在這裏是指易上當（deceived）的人，a sucker punch就是某人突如其來的出拳。看來美國戰略家應有看過孫武的《孫子兵法》！
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Michael Chugani褚簡寧
中譯：七刻
