Chess is an interesting game of strategy, but the essence of chess strategy is that of sacrifice.
Kings and Queens sacrifice pawns, knights, even castles and bishops, hoping always to take more of the other sides' pawns, knights, castles and bishops in the process, and thus take command of a narrowly defined battlefield.
Chess is an interesting game of strategy, but the essence of chess strategy is that of sacrifice.
Kings and Queens sacrifice pawns, knights, even castles and bishops, hoping always to take more of the other sides' pawns, knights, castles and bishops in the process, and thus take command of a narrowly defined battlefield.
An even older strategy game, Go, does not focus on sacrifice but on territorial control, with the objective being to control more of a large (and expansive) game board.
Through either strategic lens, war is unlikely to make Putin see the error of his ways. Putin's choice has always been for war--in Chechnya, in Georgia, in Armenia and Azerbaijan, even in Kazakhstan, Putin has always chosen war as his means for extending Russian influence and control.
Of course, as Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and many more battlefields besides demonstrate, the US and NATO have long made similar choices.
Sadly, governments rarely look at peace as a preferable outcome to war.
Chess is an interesting game of strategy, but the essence of chess strategy is that of sacrifice.
Kings and Queens sacrifice pawns, knights, even castles and bishops, hoping always to take more of the other sides' pawns, knights, castles and bishops in the process, and thus take command of a narrowly defined battlefield.
An even older strategy game, Go, does not focus on sacrifice but on territorial control, with the objective being to control more of a large (and expansive) game board.
Through either strategic lens, war is unlikely to make Putin see the error of his ways. Putin's choice has always been for war--in Chechnya, in Georgia, in Armenia and Azerbaijan, even in Kazakhstan, Putin has always chosen war as his means for extending Russian influence and control.
Of course, as Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and many more battlefields besides demonstrate, the US and NATO have long made similar choices.
Sadly, governments rarely look at peace as a preferable outcome to war.