The Source of a Warrior's Strength should always come from acquired strength,

[DR THOMAS HUGHES ND JD ESQ]

The Source of a Warrior's Strength
Borrowed strength is weakness.
Acquired strength is power.

For generations, Sparta's Armies of Warriors were shrouded in a myth of invincibility based on the fact they had successfully put down all revolts in the Peloponnesus and they had held the Persians off in the last stand of the 300 at Thermopylae.

After the defeat of Athens in 457 BC. Sparta was the most powerful city among the Greeks, and the Spartans followed an aggressive policy to maintain that status.

Their myth of invincibility had become a self-sustaining psychological weapon projected throughout the Greek world. This was Sparta's first line of defense against all challengers and they were so confident that not even the City of Sparta had defensive fortifications or walls.

However, the essence of the Spartan political system was Statism, which swallowed the lives and fortunes of individuals without regard for their rights; it was enforced ruthlessly from cradle to grave. They felt all should be subservient to them. To sum up the Spartans values in a word it would be "courage" which gave them the illusion of invincibility. This meant in order for Sparta to maintain this illusion of invincibility it needed enemies to conquer. For warriors who base their values on principals of freedom, courage is only a means to an end but with the Spartans it was the end. However, their myth of invincibility would end during the Theban Wars of 382 through 362 BC.

Spartans neighbors, the Thebans were mostly farmers vastly outnumbered and who seemingly stood no chance against the Spartans. In this fight, the Thebans cause was for freedom and the Spartans' was for subjugation, giving the Thebans the moral high ground.

In the Theban War, the Theban King Epaminondas chose to face off with the Spartan King Agesilaos, one of the most powerful men in the world, putting the life of every Theban on the line. But King Epaminondas was principled, innovative, courageous, and smart and his character was composed of the qualities of freedom, whereas the Spartans only had their myth of invincibility and their idol of courage. As we know from our own history, nothing is more powerful than freedom in the hands of individuals.

King Epaminondas met the full force of the Spartan Infantry, being outnumbered with his small army of farmers, and crushed the Spartans, the most powerful army in the Greek world, at the Battle of Leuktara 371 BC. The key to his success was the Theban Special Forces, called the Sacred Band. It was an innovative group of elite warriors chosen by merit which gave this special unit extra depth and gave the best soldiers a place to bond with other outstanding fighters on the basis of ability rather than birth. The Spartans, chosen by birthright instead of ability, were no match for the Sacred Band, which demonstrated the power of freedom and true innovation. We should take special note of this because in the United States we see our government creating mediocrity by taking away incentive by ignoring merit and hiring people based instead on birth right (race, sex, minorities, etc.) and also imposing the same discrimination in private industry, the very thing that brought the Spartans to their end. Discrimination takes away incentive, merit and reward creating a society of mediocrity. The Theban army of farmers killed the Spartan King and crushed the Spartan Army and so the myth died. This has to go down in the record books of lopsided victories giving freedom the win.

The real victory over Sparta was not in the demonstration of their defeat in the eyes of their enemies, but in their own realization that they did not live up to the myth. Knowledge is power and self-knowledge is the most efficacious and powerful of all, short of knowledge of God.

In the Military we have a term called the Center of Gravity, which is the one thing that ends the game; like in chess, it is "check-mate"; game over. It is unfortunate that few Americans understand the Center of Gravity in the long protracted War we are currently in, with no real victory in sight and a goal of "how do we get out of this without looking too weak?"

The Spartans Myth of Invincibility was their Center of Gravity and it was shattered, never to return in history again; similar to the defeat of the Japanese in World War II. The Japanese Center of Gravity, to simplify it in my own words, was their blind loyalty to their emperor who they worshiped as a deity, thought was invincible and who was an honor to die for. It took two atom bombs to break the myth, which incidentally not only saved tens of thousands of American men's lives but an estimated 4 million Japanese, if we had proceeded with our plans of invasion. (Some would be quick to suggest an embargo but that to would have cost untold Japanese lives because they were already half-starving and at least 10,000 or more American POWs would have starved to death.) The atom bombs exposed the Emperor as a fraud and not a deity or invincible. A cloud of reality fell over the people of Japan shattering the myth and giving a lasting peace. It was only by identifying and destroying their Center of Gravity that a lasting peace was won. As opposed to what happened with the Germans in WWI who were allowed to return to their country undefeated with their weapons, which meant we would fight them again in WWII where the Center of Gravity was finally achieved.

The Spartans like the Japanese both borrowed their strength and courage from the myth of invincibility, which brings us to our topic.

Acquired Verses Borrowed Strength
The warrior's strength comes from two sources: borrowed strength, which is weakness and acquired strength, which is true power.

Acquired strength is that power which results from truth and humility (teach-ability). Our nation's founders possessed acquired strength and a true moral purpose, "Freedom", which enabled them to win their independence from a great empire capable of destroying them; England was bankrupt of moral purpose.

Borrowed strength is a weakness of the warrior who becomes dependent on false ideologies along with the apparent strength and alleged wisdom from others.

The implications are obvious. Could you become knowledgeable by borrowing the answers to the questions on your test from the guy next to you or do you acquire knowledge through study and concentration. One can gain strength through absolute truth and good decisions or he can borrow it and acquire a false strength. If you use self-determination to acquire strength you will truly be strong. If you choose to borrow strength you will be a loser.

Here are some characteristics of the warrior who borrows strength:
Chooses to socialize with the wrong crowd. Deceived by evil companions with their corrupt morals.
Takes bad advice.
Goes through life being influenced by people rather then by absolute truth.
Never has an original thought.
Always depends on the counsel of others.
Uses others as a crutch.
Uses someone else's scale of values.
Never establishes priorities through absolute knowledge and truth.
Depends on vices like drugs, alcohol etc. for comfort and courage.
Acquires strength from emotions born out of a battle for the warrior and even for others, rap music, etc.
Depends on others, circumstances or things for happiness rather than inner peace.
If you want to put on muscle and get fit you do not send someone else to the gym to exercise for you; that would be borrowed strength and you cannot use borrowed physical strength. You have to decide for yourself on an exercise program and do it.
Is never consistent, never follows things through and changes plans continually.
"In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins--not through strength but by perseverance."

-H. Jackson Brown

To achieve acquired strength:

You have to relate self-determination and your choices to what you do, not to what others do. You must make daily and consistent decisions to expose yourself to truth, knowledge and new skills learning and practicing; no one else can do it for you. One of the characteristics of a warrior is to "Live and Learn".

The mature warrior has learned that energy with no ability spells trouble and arrogance. He must be careful to expend his energies on the right things in a balanced manner, knowing what is worthwhile and what is not. He knows that life is about priorities and balancing his time among them. There is a time for God, a time for training, a time for family, a time for fun, a time to fight, a time to restrain, a time to speak up, a time to listen and so on.

The mature warrior is careful of the company he keeps and knows most people judge one by a person's friends and associates; the mature warrior looks further also including one's enemies in his evaluation. Your associates will either pull you up or pull you down with them.

"There are two ways of exerting one's strength:
one is pushing down, the other is pulling up."

-Booker T. Washington

T.E. Lawrence understood the difference between borrowed strength and acquired strength and used it on the battlefield.

T. E. Lawrence was a famous British soldier who advised, led and fought along side the Arabs against the Turks in World War I. He was a master of irregular and guerrilla warfare. He had the ability to quickly see and analyze strengths and weaknesses and use them to his advantage, which he did with both his own forces and the enemies. He turned the Arabs weaknesses, which created uncertainty, into a strength that created deception and surprise combined with their mobility on Camels against the Turks. Then he turned the strength of the Turks, which was fixed fortifications, logistics, armament, unity, discipline and the usual things that comprise a conventional military force into a weakness, causing their defeat and the end of the Ottoman Empire.

In other words, in the Arab campaign he applied a theory which inverted conventional military doctrine in such a way as to convert Arab weaknesses into strengths and Turkish strengths into weaknesses.

In warrior language, he accomplishes this by looking at his enemies' strength and then finds what the strength depends on giving him the weakness and then doing the same with his weakness to see how it can be used as strength.

T. E. Lawrence left a message to all warriors in freedom from possessiveness, in freedom from competitiveness, in freeing oneself from ambition, especially from the lust of power. His strength and power sprang from knowledge and understanding, not position.

"When we are strong, we are always much greater
than the things that happen to us."

-Thomas Merton

T. E. Lawrence once remarked that "lack of independent courage" is the root fault of the military system. Analysis of history would suggest that it is the main cause of military failure. When a soldier is new to combat and conventionally trained and disciplined he is apt to feel uneasy, if not helpless, unless he is in a herd where he finds safety in numbers. But war often brings frequent shocks that disintegrate the mass and throw the individual on his own resources. This is a defining moment for a warrior to mature to that next level and draw his strength from his inner resources. If he only has borrowed strength he will be unable to cope with the emergency. This is why acquired strength is so important to the warrior especially for leaders and Special Operations soldiers, where a warrior is often thrust into a situation where he must function on his own resources.

"And each man stands with his face in the light of his own drawn sword. Ready to do what a hero can."

-Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The Source of a Warrior's Strength should always come from acquired strength, which is true power for the warrior, and he should avoid borrowing strength, which is weakness. The same is true for our nation. A nation's strength ultimately consists in what it can do on its own and its weaknesses come from its dependencies on foreign resources.

HOOAH