Sun Tzu's method is called "winning without conflict" because the heart of the method is advancing your position while avoiding destructive battles. While all battles are destructive, the most destructive are those attacking an opponent's strong point. As the saying goes, it doesn't matter if the rock hits the pitcher or the pitcher hits the rock, it's going to be bad for the pitcher. When you don't see an opening to move into, you are better doing nothing that simply attacking for the sake of fighting. We see this clearly in the last few days of attacks on Sarah Palin coming from Obama's campaign and his supporters in the media and on the net. The silliest of these came from the Obama campaign itself who criticized her from not writing her own speech. Everyone I talked to instantly reacted to this charge with the recognition that no politician writes his or her speeches alone. This made the Obama campaign look, at the best, foolish and, at the worst, dishonest.