Rules of the Game

What game? Why the ultimate game --

the game that has plagued humankind

since time immemorial. It is part of the

human condition where humanity preys

upon itself. It is unavoidable in any guise

it presents itself, and seldom are the

antagonists equal in command and stature.

Inevitably there will be an aggressor and

a victim, an unequal match where an army

of size and fearful renown marches upon

a rudimentary self-defense league, ill

equipped and trained, predictably lost to

the prowess of the other skilled in brutality.

On occasion the stuff of legend presents

where the victim refuses the aggressor's rules

and musters courage and determination to

hamper an aggressor's strategy of conquest.

Atrocities committed by the aggressor serve

to firm up resolve and despite inhuman losses

the victim spurns the rules of surrender

choosing instead to inflict great injury on the

offender. A mere 'incursion', destructive and

deadly then transformed as punishment to a

full-scale war whereby the aggressor redoubles

its violations of the sanctity of life willing to

absorb his own severe losses in the assurance

that the malevolence of hatred will prevail in

the final destruction of an irritant that will not

bend to his iron will dedicated to conquest.