yes, gaining victory is an ultimate goal for all warriors from a senior general to a private. However, one cannot achieve success using direct ways only because the direct comes from indirect but the conventional from unconventional and the true from false, etc. A fail-safe solution is in the ratio of oppositions, which is ‘the closer to fifty-fifty the better.’ As Sun-zi advocates ‘to fight and conquer the enemy in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.’ This brings politics and diplomacy into play as an integral part of warfighting. Waging war is the art and science, together; therefore, there are roads which must not be followed and armies which must be not attacked and cities which must not be besieged and regions which must not be contested and commands of the superior which must not be obeyed. . . This kind of art/science about life and death, peace and war, loss and gain, defeat and win is quite complicated and too important business to be left to soldiers. . . only true warriors can handle it, . . not always, as the practice shows us, from time to time, meantime. . . Cheers, alex

Warriors always strive to win but your poem is unique and thought provoking.

So now I am dead but blameless? No dice.