Showing Restraint

The Greenfielders Show Restraint

By Israel Zwick, CN Publications

Author’s Note: The following story was adapted from Classic Logic Puzzles (Sterling Publishing Co., 2003). The story is entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real persons, places, or events is completely coincidental.

Once upon a time there was a little town in the desert called Greenfield. The Greenfielders were mostly poor immigrants who were struggling hard to build better lives for themselves and their families. They succeeded in developing their small desert town into a flourishing community.

However, near Greenfield was a small strip of land called Azan. The people of Azan believed that Greenfield was rightfully their land so they decided that they would drive out the Greenfielders by force. To do that, they started shooting rockets at Greenfield on a daily basis. The rockets were specifically aimed at the civilian population: at schools, homes, and businesses.  Some of the rockets fell harmlessly, some caused property damage, some caused injuries, and occasionally they caused deaths.

The Greenfielders were frightened of these rockets because they never knew where they would land, they could land anywhere. They had only 15 seconds to seek shelter once a rocket was detected. Their lives were in constant turmoil. Children were afraid to play outdoors and mothers were afraid to go shopping. Many Greenfielders fled the town for a safer environment.

Finally, the Greenfield Town Council decided to have a meeting to decide what to do about the incessant rockets. They decided to hire three tanks that would go into Azan and finally destroy the rocket launchers. So the next week, three tanks lined up on the Azan border ready to attack Azan as soon as they received the orders. The tanks were named Emunah, Chochmah, and Gvurah. However, as soon as the international community detected the tanks, there was a big outcry of protest.

An aging, former leader of the country Yoo-Essay, went to visit the Azan leaders and came back saying, “The Azan people want peace with the Greenfielders. The only reason that they are shooting rockets is because the Greenfielders are constantly harassing and irritating them. So if the Greenfielders stop their harassment, the Azans will stop their rockets. If the Greenfielders attack the Azans with their tanks, that would constitute collective punishment against an innocent civilian population so they must not be allowed to do that.”

The leader of a peace organization called the Yoo-Enn, said,” If the Greenfielders attack the Azans it would be a violation of international law and result in unlawful occupation of Azan territory. They cannot do that”

The leader of the Eey-Yoo said, “If the Greenfielders attack the Azans with three tanks it would be considered disproportionate and excessive retaliation against mostly harmless rockets. The Greenfielders must show restraint.”

The Azan leaders warned the Greenfielders, “If you attack us with your three tanks, we will retaliate with our most advanced weapons – our digital video camera with video imaging software. We will produce a video showing children and goats lying in pools of blood with wailing women kneeling over them. We will use Yoo-Toob to distribute this video to millions of people around the world. All the human rights organizations and trade unions will condemn, vilify, and boycott you. You will be finished.”

The Greenfielders were very concerned about these threats so the Town Council decided to meet again. After a lengthy debate, they decided that they would show restraint to the international community. They resolved that they would attack with only one tank, leave another tank at the border for backup, and send the third tank back to the military base.

Using the information below, determine which of the three tanks would attack, which would stay at the border, and which would withdraw to the base.

  1. If Gvurah attacked, then Emunah would stay at the border.
  2. If Emunah attacked, the Gvurah would go back to the base.
  3. If Gvurah went back to the base, then Chochmah would stay at the border
  4. If Chochmoh stayed at the border, then Gvurah would attack
  5. If Emunah stayed at the border, then Chochmoh would attack.

For solution, click on the link below.

Solution:

From statement 1, if Gvurah attacked, then Emunah stayed at the border. If so, Chochmoh went back to base. However, from statement 5, if Emunah stayed at the border, then Chochmoh would attack. Therefore, Gvurah did not attack.

From statement 2, if Emunah attacked, Gvurah went back to base. If so, Chochmoh stayed at the border. However, from statement 4, if Chochmoh stayed at the border, then Gvurah attacked. Therefore, Emunah did not attack. Chochmoh must have been the tank that attacked.

From statement 3, if Gvurah went to base, then Chochmoh stayed at the border. However, since we know that Chochmoh attacked, then Gvurah did not go back to base. Therefore, Gvurah stayed at the border, and Emunah went back to the base and did not participate at all.

Summary:

Chochmoh attacked

Gvurah stayed at the border for backup

Emunah went back to the base and did not participate.

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