Shall we drink to a blitzkrieg?

You will have the honour of being the first to expose the blitzkrieg for what it is

The blitzkrieg on Poland had given the world a new word and the generals a new idea of battle.

However, if we'd had this talk 60 years ago, we would have seen how the emergence of new aircraft and tank technologies, which give the advantage to the attacker, make the Blitzkrieg doctrine very credible and thus create the possibility of war in Europe.

The US led public relations blitzkrieg of euphemism has already begun, with US Assistant Trade Representative Wendy Cutler describing the latest PTA, the Trans Pacific Partnership, as a high standard agreement. Other American officials have taken to calling PTA s trade agreements for the twenty first century.

Taking an enemy by surprise confers a significant tactical advantage in war, and the invasion inflicted an immense psychological and political shock on India that greatly magnified the initial military advances that China achieved. China s blitzkrieg created a defeatist mindset in India, forcing its army to retreat to defensive positions.

The second, which culminated in World War I, was driven by massed firepower, and is expressed in the saying, reportedly coined at the Battle of Verdun in 1916, artillery conquers, infantry occupies. And the third generation perfected by Germany with the blitzkrieg method employed in World War II emphasized maneuver over force, with militaries using infiltration to bypass the enemy and collapse its force from the rear, rather than attacking frontally.

The exceptions to this state of affairs are when the Party initiates a propaganda campaign, such as the one associated with the turnover of Hong Kong in 1997, or the more recent anti Falun Gong blitzkrieg. At such times, directives are issued to produce programming with specific ideological content, and such shows dubbed renwu (duties) are perfunctorily overseen by TV producers, after which the more bottom up mode returns.