While it is said the hard things are simple and the simple things are hard, the basics of people's war are easy to grasp. The biggest mistake made by some who fight those who use the tactics of people's war as first formulated by Mao is they expect exact iterations of the original (it·er·a·tion
1 : the action or a process of iterating or repeating: as a : a procedure in which repetition of a sequence of operations yields results successively closer to a desired result). What we see is adaptation of the strategy to the terrain both human and political and the motivation which is either political or in the case of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan contain a religious element as well.
The main center of gravity is the people, without the support of the people the fighter is a fish out of water, with the support of the people the fighter is like Mao's fish. The people's support can be willing which means you have food, shelter, recruits, intelligence on the movements of your opponent and caches for your equipment or obtained through the use of terrorism in the end their passive indifference is just as good as active support, as long as they are not aiding your opponent then you have a clear field to operate from.
In the end when you are losing a people's war/insurgency you are not being outfought but being out administrated as Dr Bernard Fall famously said.
While the government can't meet every need of the people the important thing that matters is that the people see the government doing the best it can to help the people to help themselves and to supply guidance, security as well as materiel to rebuild or to build a better life.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Its Deja Vu all over again - or Johnson had Tet Bush has Baghdad Blues?
Talking with the boys it seems that a wild rumor that Al Qaeda has promised "Bloody August" however the only one I have heard use those words is President Bush? hmmm preperation for a disaster this August? For our enemies they dont have to win a tactical victory as President Johnson discovered though Tet was a Tactical Defeat that destroyed the Viet Cong, the United States lost the war Psychologically, in that the American people true to General Marshalls statement that a democracy cant fight a war lasting longer than 4 years.
Just as the puppet government of South Vietnam did not survive long after the American pull out so too the puppet government of Iraq will not last, our opponents are fighting ruthlessly and we are whining pathticly about laws of land warfare that we can not enforce in regard to our opponents? as if punishing our people unilattereally hopeing the other side will receprocate? Is the entire government and lesser brancehes HIGH ON DOPE? IF SO THEN THIS MAKES SENSE, give them all a urinalysis like everybody else does in the military, hmm maybe not I'ld hate to see how many of our politcal leaders come up clean as I suspect that the clean are the small bunch.
Hmm Saigon South Vietnam now Ho Chi Minh City SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM was close to the ocean and the US News was full of film of the United States evacuating the embassy along with those who had the $$$$$$ to buy a seat on a helicopter???? So how will Baghdad be evacuated? One by land-Two by Air? and if it is impossible its not like the american people will do anything if the evacuating americans are massacred on their way out, as if we would declare war again? In the end breaking common sense as well as principles as old and older than Sun Tzu, The Art of War - DO NOT ENGAGE IN PROTRACTED WAR,......... but hey its just these people haven't read the script and dont know they got to kneel and bow before President George Bush! Perhaps Fela*** him as well?
As the System of a Down song Bring Your Own Bomb suggests
WHY DO THEY ALWAYS SEND THE POOR!
My god is of spiteful blood with morbid eels.Victorious, victorious, steel,
Can you stand and kneel?
Marching forward hypocritic and hypnotic computers.
You depend on our protection,
Yet you feed us lies from the table cloth.
la la la la la la la la la,
Everybody’s going to the party have a real good time.
Dancing in the desert blowing up the sunshine.
kneeling roses disappearing, into Moses’ dirt dry mouth,
breaking into Fort Knox, stealing our intentions,every city gripped in oil, Crying FREEDOM!
Oh well what the fuck population control and no one really cares, its such a small percentage of the population in the armed forces that NO ONE WHO MATTERS will have a loved one killed, you peasants should be glad to die for your betters after all if YOU mattered you WOULDNT have joined the army but went to college....
But just a Islam survived the Christian Crusades I guess the West will pass through the Al Qaeda/bin Laden crusades and if we dont? well I'm brushing up on my Arabic (Egyptian dialect but perhaps Saudi dialect would be more wise? That and embracing Salfism, er Wahhabbism to you WESTERN INFIDEL DOGS!
I see not the beginning of an end but the end to a mad danse macabre as the people eventually wake up and START to hold congress feet to the fire! Until I am practicing my arabic and learning islam as well not sure if Sunni or perhaps Shi'is would be a wise path to explore
Just as the puppet government of South Vietnam did not survive long after the American pull out so too the puppet government of Iraq will not last, our opponents are fighting ruthlessly and we are whining pathticly about laws of land warfare that we can not enforce in regard to our opponents? as if punishing our people unilattereally hopeing the other side will receprocate? Is the entire government and lesser brancehes HIGH ON DOPE? IF SO THEN THIS MAKES SENSE, give them all a urinalysis like everybody else does in the military, hmm maybe not I'ld hate to see how many of our politcal leaders come up clean as I suspect that the clean are the small bunch.
Hmm Saigon South Vietnam now Ho Chi Minh City SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM was close to the ocean and the US News was full of film of the United States evacuating the embassy along with those who had the $$$$$$ to buy a seat on a helicopter???? So how will Baghdad be evacuated? One by land-Two by Air? and if it is impossible its not like the american people will do anything if the evacuating americans are massacred on their way out, as if we would declare war again? In the end breaking common sense as well as principles as old and older than Sun Tzu, The Art of War - DO NOT ENGAGE IN PROTRACTED WAR,......... but hey its just these people haven't read the script and dont know they got to kneel and bow before President George Bush! Perhaps Fela*** him as well?
As the System of a Down song Bring Your Own Bomb suggests
WHY DO THEY ALWAYS SEND THE POOR!
My god is of spiteful blood with morbid eels.Victorious, victorious, steel,
Can you stand and kneel?
Marching forward hypocritic and hypnotic computers.
You depend on our protection,
Yet you feed us lies from the table cloth.
la la la la la la la la la,
Everybody’s going to the party have a real good time.
Dancing in the desert blowing up the sunshine.
kneeling roses disappearing, into Moses’ dirt dry mouth,
breaking into Fort Knox, stealing our intentions,every city gripped in oil, Crying FREEDOM!
Oh well what the fuck population control and no one really cares, its such a small percentage of the population in the armed forces that NO ONE WHO MATTERS will have a loved one killed, you peasants should be glad to die for your betters after all if YOU mattered you WOULDNT have joined the army but went to college....
But just a Islam survived the Christian Crusades I guess the West will pass through the Al Qaeda/bin Laden crusades and if we dont? well I'm brushing up on my Arabic (Egyptian dialect but perhaps Saudi dialect would be more wise? That and embracing Salfism, er Wahhabbism to you WESTERN INFIDEL DOGS!
I see not the beginning of an end but the end to a mad danse macabre as the people eventually wake up and START to hold congress feet to the fire! Until I am practicing my arabic and learning islam as well not sure if Sunni or perhaps Shi'is would be a wise path to explore
Friday, June 1, 2007
Korea as a strategy-Are you people smoking dope or what!
Hearing reports that the President is using Korea as a model for the future of Iraq, I got to ask "Are you people smoking dope? IF YES than this makes sense if not then WTF!!" In a sense it comes down to IS IT THE FACT THAT MAO ORIGINATED PEOPLES WAR THAT YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH USING THE TACTIC? Once more we are so caught up in complete annihilation of the enemy that we cant see no other way but stalemate? Then why did we invade that country? Oh yeah the 21st century version of the domino theory. At this point in time it cant be repeated enough that just as the people are an ocean the successful fighter is he who can swim in that ocean, to provide protection for the people and security. Otherwise just pack up and go home cause the only choice you have is Hama Rules, Lidice, etc. Or as the people of Iraq are having to choose sides based on who can and will hurt me the worst. Who's the jackass who believes that there are rules when its an expression older than the hills that all is fair in love and war?
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
PFC Joseph Anzack Jr., found in the Euphrates River The other missing soldiers are Spc. Alex R. Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Mass.; and Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich. While there is some hope the biggest source of hope lies in that the 3 of them were not found executed like the
bodies of two American soldiers who disappeared Friday after an insurgent attack on a checkpoint were discovered late Monday and showed signs of having been tortured. Al-Qaida in Iraq posted an Internet statement claiming that Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, the successor to the group's leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, killed the two soldiers, using a word for slaughter that is commonly understood to mean beheading. According to a farmer claiming to have witnessed the attack, masked gunmen swarmed the checkpoint, killing the driver of a Humvee Spc. David J. Babineau, 25 of Springfield, Mass. and taking the two other soldiers captive. Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore. I find it strange that when there's film of American atrocities the press worldwide, US is quick to run this film footage yet the footage of Menchaca and Tucker taken by the insurgents showing them laying out the bodies and playing soccer with Tuckers head is too graphic to show? Perhaps had it been US troops desecrating the bodies it would have been not too graphic.
I predict that holding one side to obeying the rules of war and turning a blind eye to the other sides violations has led to what is happening today - that is to say you can't have unilateral obedience of laws before one side says "HEY IF YOU'RE GOING TO IGNORE OUR OPPONENTS VIOLATIONS....." then you have Hama Rules, not US troops committing atrocities but Iraqi elements, not necessarily military but perhaps paramilitary and the signs of this kind of program already going on are there for those who can read between the lines to see.
Once atrocity begins it is a slippery slope of action/reaction no less than an iron circle of revenge when it gets to the point to where no one remembers the original acts being avenged or who did what to who. It's out there people and until there is equal justice instead of any act commited by the insurrgents a legitimaate act of ressistance no matter who wins the criminals using the war as a fig leaf of justificartion will present a problem in restoreing law and order when the war's over.
bodies of two American soldiers who disappeared Friday after an insurgent attack on a checkpoint were discovered late Monday and showed signs of having been tortured. Al-Qaida in Iraq posted an Internet statement claiming that Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, the successor to the group's leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, killed the two soldiers, using a word for slaughter that is commonly understood to mean beheading. According to a farmer claiming to have witnessed the attack, masked gunmen swarmed the checkpoint, killing the driver of a Humvee Spc. David J. Babineau, 25 of Springfield, Mass. and taking the two other soldiers captive. Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore. I find it strange that when there's film of American atrocities the press worldwide, US is quick to run this film footage yet the footage of Menchaca and Tucker taken by the insurgents showing them laying out the bodies and playing soccer with Tuckers head is too graphic to show? Perhaps had it been US troops desecrating the bodies it would have been not too graphic.
I predict that holding one side to obeying the rules of war and turning a blind eye to the other sides violations has led to what is happening today - that is to say you can't have unilateral obedience of laws before one side says "HEY IF YOU'RE GOING TO IGNORE OUR OPPONENTS VIOLATIONS....." then you have Hama Rules, not US troops committing atrocities but Iraqi elements, not necessarily military but perhaps paramilitary and the signs of this kind of program already going on are there for those who can read between the lines to see.
Once atrocity begins it is a slippery slope of action/reaction no less than an iron circle of revenge when it gets to the point to where no one remembers the original acts being avenged or who did what to who. It's out there people and until there is equal justice instead of any act commited by the insurrgents a legitimaate act of ressistance no matter who wins the criminals using the war as a fig leaf of justificartion will present a problem in restoreing law and order when the war's over.
Monday, May 21, 2007
PS
It should go without saying, but to clarify for those who cant think their way out of a wet paperbag, while I advocate taking RUTHLESS action against our opponents, at the same time I urge economic actions to show the neutral WHY IT IS THEIR BEST NTERST TO SUPPORT US AND THUS THEIR GOVERNMENT. The height of folly is to gon in intending to do well and becoming like Mister Kurtz "Exterminate the brutes" We must be men not just of high ideals but also of moral fortitude. Otherwise whats the point? may as well practicse Mongol Negotiation or act by Hama Rules.
Additions
Seems the boys have pointed out I have missed 3 other books that SHOULD be in a strategists library! The Prince where Machiavelli discusses monarchical governments read in conjunction with the Discourses on Livy, where Machiavelli advocates republican governance. And the United States Marine Corps Small Wars Manual of 1940. To those who say the Small Wars Manual is out of date, I suggest that by reading these books I have suggested one can build a foundation in learning HOW TO THINK rather than WHAT TO THINK. The book is a guideline and can NOT cover every situation but just as the Romans valued a sound mind in a sound body and many among these readers exercise to maintain the body, the mind too must be exercised in order to develop a sound way of thinking.
Now on to the main subject, in Iraq it is indisputable that the insurgents are in control of the population createing a habitable sea in which to swim and flourish. In a recent news story of the search for the missing soldiers in Iraq, it was sasid that the people were afraid to speak to the US Troops as the insurgents promised DEATH to any who did so and to prove their point killed that towns sheikh - remind you of something? Hint it is alleged a Sendero Luminoso in describing his strategy in a short paragraph said "We practice selective annihilation of mayors and government officials for example to create a vacuum, then we fill that vacuum. As popular war advances peace is closer" Bernard Fall wrote of this in his paper showing that while coventional forces claimed control of the prople and countryside the reality was different. By collilateing murders (assassinations) with the postiti0ons of the vcictims, he was able to show that conventions forces were lucky to be able to control the space in front of thier bedroom door to exagerate a point.
The control of the people and information is a hallmark of the insurgency in Iraq but then when you are going for ULTIMATE POWER Miachaivelli and not the "GOOD BOOK" of the GOD of your understqanding is the guidline and rules to gain that poswer. To the victor the spoils and to the loser? IF you are lucky a bullet to the back of the head and a grave, if not? well after a long and painful end the dogs will eat well, so at least the dogs will appreciate you.
Why else are the insurgents killing those reporters who don't play along or publish material that aids them? They pass out/sell DVDs/Videos of thier atrocities where they kill disi9dentsa nd those opposed or percieved to be opposed to their agenda and NOTHING! However when the US Forces/Allies commit a crime and the world sits in horror and demands justice? It is this atttitude where one side is unaccountable for its actions that leads to a Pol Pot type regime with YEAR ZERO and all its attendant horrors, and afterwqrds the world moans WHY DOESNT SOMEONE DO SOMETHING! And apparently its the United States who MUST do something? Look a Rwanda? The genocide of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutu sympathizers in Rwanda and was the largest atrocity during the Rwandan Civil War. This genocide was mostly carried out by two extremist Hutu militia groups, the Interahamwe and the Impuzamugambi, during about 100 days from April 6 through mid-July 1994. At least 500,000 Tutsis and thousands of moderate Hutus died in the genocide. Other estimates put the death toll between 800,000 and 1,000,000.
In the wake of the Rwandan Genocide, the United Nations and the international community drew severe criticism for its inaction. Despite international news media coverage of the violence as it unfolded, most countries, including France, Belgium, and the United States, declined to intervene or speak out against the massacres. Canada continued to lead the UN peacekeeping force in Rwanda, United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR). However, the UN Security Council did not authorize UNAMIR to intervene or use force to prevent or halt the killing. Afterward it was reorted the United States Apologized for not becoming involved in stopping the genocide? What about thte neighbor African countries? The European Countries? Those in South American. All those who are quick to denounce the United States for acting in its interests but when a situation is in neither the United States or their interest then NO ONE does anything and it is a non event? Somewhere Adolph Hitler’s Ghost is laughing it up with the ghosts of
Heinrich Himmler Reinhard Heydrich and Adolf Eichmann are laughing as they wander the grounds of The villa at 56-58 Am Grossen Wannsee, saying we gave the world Endlösung, the final soluition and they said at the sites of our camps NEVER AGAIN? So what is different? Jus t what they call it Ethnic Cleansing is no more than semantics hiding the truth that the more that things change the more they stay the same.
So what must be done? First of all while I abhor the press for presenting a unilatteral picture of the crimes that are occuring there, I also fault those in charge for a failed information campaign strategy. The center of gravity and goal was/is/and always will be thte people. Just like in Vietnam the Allied Forces control in the day but at night the insurgents come out to play and the people are left to ask the age old questoin "Who can hurt me the worst" and support that side. Instead of fighting harder we must fight smarter, instead of reacting to the insurgents moves it is time we became the band and plalyed the tune that they dance to instead of vice versa. The Marine Corps in Vietnam were well on thier way to doing this with the civic action platoons in Vietnam, the mmilitary has the well knowns break down of activities into S1 Administration – S2 Intelligence – S3 Operations – S4 Supply and the little known but there on paper S5 Civil Affairs, always hiding in the shadows they may as well be intelligence operations as they behave far more secretively than the spooks do. Get them into the spotlight and take the attention of allegations and innuendoes about atrocities real or imagined.
At this point in time to quote to these people "Those who would trade security for freedom deserve neither," are talking empty rhetoric to a man who says "Maye so but being alive one more day means far more than your empty words". At this point in time the insurgency is no more than a matte of getting there firstest with the mostest to quote General Nathan Bedford Forrest. It has been proven that many of these people involvedin fighting us are doing so for economic reasons, the disbanding of the army and bathist infrastructure with no jobs left many oopen to recruitment to fight for money to feed their families. I can not dondem this as I would do so to feed my fammily. It is said that when MacArthur took over as overloard of Imperial Japan he made basicly 2 anuncemants.
1. I am in charge and those of you employed by the Imperial Japanese Government are not going to be paid by that body.
2. tomorrow you WILL RETURN TO WORK THOSE OF YOU IN CHARGE OF KEEPING ORDER - WE WILL BE PAYING YOU. They did and order was kept.
To paraphraise Miachiavelli, if you are going to hurt someone, do so in a manner that they will be unable to retaliate against you, no small hurt but annihilation to where tyey are impotent and powerless to do anything.
Two sad but true as Sun Tzu said make all your calculations ahead of time and be through, the last thing you want to do is leave the people in confusion as to who is in charge and leave a power vaccum, becasue there is someone who will seek to fill that vaccum and take charge and to whine ineffectively about human rights, laws of war, the Geneva Convention may get the reply "We are not in Genevca" or "IF you seek me to play by your rules, make me! show mew why it is in my interest to follow your rules! I am after power, when I win I will rewrite hitory to show me as the hero and you as the criminal villain.
Think about it - to those who think I am full of it and have no idea of what I am talking about please feel free to come up with a solution, instead of full quotes plead add a link, and keep your argument to hmmm perhaps 2-3 paragrapshs at the most. Raising your voice nor repetition does not reenfoce your argument. Instead say your peace and allow me to rebut your argument or if you have a relevent point I shall praise you for clarifying the issue.
Now on to the main subject, in Iraq it is indisputable that the insurgents are in control of the population createing a habitable sea in which to swim and flourish. In a recent news story of the search for the missing soldiers in Iraq, it was sasid that the people were afraid to speak to the US Troops as the insurgents promised DEATH to any who did so and to prove their point killed that towns sheikh - remind you of something? Hint it is alleged a Sendero Luminoso in describing his strategy in a short paragraph said "We practice selective annihilation of mayors and government officials for example to create a vacuum, then we fill that vacuum. As popular war advances peace is closer" Bernard Fall wrote of this in his paper showing that while coventional forces claimed control of the prople and countryside the reality was different. By collilateing murders (assassinations) with the postiti0ons of the vcictims, he was able to show that conventions forces were lucky to be able to control the space in front of thier bedroom door to exagerate a point.
The control of the people and information is a hallmark of the insurgency in Iraq but then when you are going for ULTIMATE POWER Miachaivelli and not the "GOOD BOOK" of the GOD of your understqanding is the guidline and rules to gain that poswer. To the victor the spoils and to the loser? IF you are lucky a bullet to the back of the head and a grave, if not? well after a long and painful end the dogs will eat well, so at least the dogs will appreciate you.
Why else are the insurgents killing those reporters who don't play along or publish material that aids them? They pass out/sell DVDs/Videos of thier atrocities where they kill disi9dentsa nd those opposed or percieved to be opposed to their agenda and NOTHING! However when the US Forces/Allies commit a crime and the world sits in horror and demands justice? It is this atttitude where one side is unaccountable for its actions that leads to a Pol Pot type regime with YEAR ZERO and all its attendant horrors, and afterwqrds the world moans WHY DOESNT SOMEONE DO SOMETHING! And apparently its the United States who MUST do something? Look a Rwanda? The genocide of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutu sympathizers in Rwanda and was the largest atrocity during the Rwandan Civil War. This genocide was mostly carried out by two extremist Hutu militia groups, the Interahamwe and the Impuzamugambi, during about 100 days from April 6 through mid-July 1994. At least 500,000 Tutsis and thousands of moderate Hutus died in the genocide. Other estimates put the death toll between 800,000 and 1,000,000.
In the wake of the Rwandan Genocide, the United Nations and the international community drew severe criticism for its inaction. Despite international news media coverage of the violence as it unfolded, most countries, including France, Belgium, and the United States, declined to intervene or speak out against the massacres. Canada continued to lead the UN peacekeeping force in Rwanda, United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR). However, the UN Security Council did not authorize UNAMIR to intervene or use force to prevent or halt the killing. Afterward it was reorted the United States Apologized for not becoming involved in stopping the genocide? What about thte neighbor African countries? The European Countries? Those in South American. All those who are quick to denounce the United States for acting in its interests but when a situation is in neither the United States or their interest then NO ONE does anything and it is a non event? Somewhere Adolph Hitler’s Ghost is laughing it up with the ghosts of
Heinrich Himmler Reinhard Heydrich and Adolf Eichmann are laughing as they wander the grounds of The villa at 56-58 Am Grossen Wannsee, saying we gave the world Endlösung, the final soluition and they said at the sites of our camps NEVER AGAIN? So what is different? Jus t what they call it Ethnic Cleansing is no more than semantics hiding the truth that the more that things change the more they stay the same.
So what must be done? First of all while I abhor the press for presenting a unilatteral picture of the crimes that are occuring there, I also fault those in charge for a failed information campaign strategy. The center of gravity and goal was/is/and always will be thte people. Just like in Vietnam the Allied Forces control in the day but at night the insurgents come out to play and the people are left to ask the age old questoin "Who can hurt me the worst" and support that side. Instead of fighting harder we must fight smarter, instead of reacting to the insurgents moves it is time we became the band and plalyed the tune that they dance to instead of vice versa. The Marine Corps in Vietnam were well on thier way to doing this with the civic action platoons in Vietnam, the mmilitary has the well knowns break down of activities into S1 Administration – S2 Intelligence – S3 Operations – S4 Supply and the little known but there on paper S5 Civil Affairs, always hiding in the shadows they may as well be intelligence operations as they behave far more secretively than the spooks do. Get them into the spotlight and take the attention of allegations and innuendoes about atrocities real or imagined.
At this point in time to quote to these people "Those who would trade security for freedom deserve neither," are talking empty rhetoric to a man who says "Maye so but being alive one more day means far more than your empty words". At this point in time the insurgency is no more than a matte of getting there firstest with the mostest to quote General Nathan Bedford Forrest. It has been proven that many of these people involvedin fighting us are doing so for economic reasons, the disbanding of the army and bathist infrastructure with no jobs left many oopen to recruitment to fight for money to feed their families. I can not dondem this as I would do so to feed my fammily. It is said that when MacArthur took over as overloard of Imperial Japan he made basicly 2 anuncemants.
1. I am in charge and those of you employed by the Imperial Japanese Government are not going to be paid by that body.
2. tomorrow you WILL RETURN TO WORK THOSE OF YOU IN CHARGE OF KEEPING ORDER - WE WILL BE PAYING YOU. They did and order was kept.
To paraphraise Miachiavelli, if you are going to hurt someone, do so in a manner that they will be unable to retaliate against you, no small hurt but annihilation to where tyey are impotent and powerless to do anything.
Two sad but true as Sun Tzu said make all your calculations ahead of time and be through, the last thing you want to do is leave the people in confusion as to who is in charge and leave a power vaccum, becasue there is someone who will seek to fill that vaccum and take charge and to whine ineffectively about human rights, laws of war, the Geneva Convention may get the reply "We are not in Genevca" or "IF you seek me to play by your rules, make me! show mew why it is in my interest to follow your rules! I am after power, when I win I will rewrite hitory to show me as the hero and you as the criminal villain.
Think about it - to those who think I am full of it and have no idea of what I am talking about please feel free to come up with a solution, instead of full quotes plead add a link, and keep your argument to hmmm perhaps 2-3 paragrapshs at the most. Raising your voice nor repetition does not reenfoce your argument. Instead say your peace and allow me to rebut your argument or if you have a relevent point I shall praise you for clarifying the issue.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Part II
Getting back to where I started, I advise that you begin the the basics among which are the following books. Sun Tzu The Art of War, The 36 Strategies, Carl Von Clausewitz On War(when you read On War bring a dictionary and remember that this book is unfinished, Clausewitz died before it was finished and his wife gathered his papers, put them together and published them. His writing style is dialectic that is to say he wrote a thesis then a antithesis and a synthesis or in plain English a idea then a counter idea and finally a finished idea that leads you in the right direction. For example the thesis (1st idea) is "We shall not enter into any of the abstruse definitions of war used by publicists. We shall keep to the element of the thing itself, to a duel. War is nothing but a duel on an extensive scale. If we would conceive as a unit the countless number of duels which make up a war, we shall do so best by supposing to ourselves two wrestlers. Each strives by physical force to compel the other to submit to his will: his first object is to throw his adversary, and thus to render him incapable of further resistance. the antithesis (counter idea) is "War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means. " (which brings us to the synthesis that is to say to tie together the spirit of both to begin to study the problem impartially) the `remarkable trinity' In On War: Clausewitz defines the components of the trinity as (1) primordial violence, hatred, and enmity; (2) the play of chance and probability; and (3) war's element of subordination to rational policy. Mao tse Tung (there's 4 books and one essay to be read to understand guerrilla warfare and they are in order A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire (January 5, 1930)- On Guerilla Warfare (1937) -Basic Tactics (1937)- -On Guerrilla Warfare 1937-On Protracted War (May 1938). Bring your dictionary because what you thought a word means and what it actually means is two different things and can influence your understanding of what you are reading. Also look up on the Internet others papers, for example the meaning of politics as we use it today and as Clausewitz used it is very different and today those who translate Clausewitz can't agree on what he meant and was trying to say, so by seeing both pro and con you can come to a better informed opinion. For example as Antulio J. Echevarria II wrote in his paper (Clausewitz's description of war as a "continuation of politics (Politik) by other means" is of course well known. But it is unfortunately interpreted to mean that war is merely an act of state policy brought forth to achieve a political aim. At least part of the confusion surrounding this misunderstanding stems from the ambiguity of the German term Politik, for it means both policy and politics. But Clausewitz, too, deserves some blame, for he neglected to define in simple language how he wanted this multivalent term to be understood. Indeed, German scholars and soldiers alike have puzzled over this question since the late nineteenth century. Historian Eberhard Kessel argued, for example, that, for Clausewitz, Politik consisted of subjective and objective elements. The former pertained to the choice or choices made by the political leadership regarding the type of war to be waged and the specific aims to be pursued. The latter involved the dominant ideas, emotions, and political interrelationships unique to a given time and place.
In fact, Clausewitz's varied usage of Politik and the historical context within which he wrote indicate that he meant three things by the term. First, Clausewitz did intend Politik to mean policy, the extension of the will of the state, the decision to pursue a goal, political or otherwise. Second, Politik also meant politics as an external state of affairs, the strengths and weaknesses provided to a state by its geo-political position, its resources, alliances and treaties, and as an ongoing process of internal interaction between a state's key decision-making institutions and the personalities of its policy makers. Lastly, Clausewitz used Politik as an historically causative force, providing an explanatory pattern or framework for coherently viewing war's various manifestations over time.) others will have their own interpretation of what was meant of course giving you points of view and interpretations to allow you to choose what you think was meant.
In my next posts I shall take what I feel is a look at war based upon the writings I have listed, however DON'T TAKE WHAT I WRITE AS GOSPEL-HADDITH LOOK FOR YOURSELF.
In the end we are faced with many schools of thought among those are those leaders who are so in love with the book that they can't do a thing without the book or to use a Navy saying covering the three people. There are 3 types of leaders who base their actions on three expressions 1. Unless the book says you can do it you can't 2. Unless the book says you can't do it you can 3. Its easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. Got to love those sailors, but then the fleet has always been the branch of the armed forces that has traditionally had to operate independently of "HIGHER" more than any other branch.
Was going to write something differently however one of the guys I talk to was looking at my script and just scratched his head saying "That's nice but do you have to use so many big words? Who you trying to impress with your vocabulary? Can't you just write this is plain English?" So I am rewriting this and will be publishing hopefully a thoughtful coherent paper instead of an essay that seeks intentionally or unintentionally to look like a scholarly work out to impress those in the academic community while boring to tears those in the field.
Until then I have two messages for my brothers.
To those world famous "Devil Dog" Brothers of mine Semper Fidelis
To those world infamous "Rakkasans", the heroes of Shah-i-Kot Valley NE DESIT VIRTUS
as for the rest of y'all God love and bless everyone of you.
Last thought WHY do you CAV guys always say IF YOU AIN'T SHIT YOU AIN'T CAV? Since I never have been, are, or intend to be SHIT I can't be CAV?
YHWH/GOD/ALLAH bless Colonel James Hallums! Rakkasan Commander! American Hero!Good Night Uncle Chesty-Wherever you are.
In fact, Clausewitz's varied usage of Politik and the historical context within which he wrote indicate that he meant three things by the term. First, Clausewitz did intend Politik to mean policy, the extension of the will of the state, the decision to pursue a goal, political or otherwise. Second, Politik also meant politics as an external state of affairs, the strengths and weaknesses provided to a state by its geo-political position, its resources, alliances and treaties, and as an ongoing process of internal interaction between a state's key decision-making institutions and the personalities of its policy makers. Lastly, Clausewitz used Politik as an historically causative force, providing an explanatory pattern or framework for coherently viewing war's various manifestations over time.) others will have their own interpretation of what was meant of course giving you points of view and interpretations to allow you to choose what you think was meant.
In my next posts I shall take what I feel is a look at war based upon the writings I have listed, however DON'T TAKE WHAT I WRITE AS GOSPEL-HADDITH LOOK FOR YOURSELF.
In the end we are faced with many schools of thought among those are those leaders who are so in love with the book that they can't do a thing without the book or to use a Navy saying covering the three people. There are 3 types of leaders who base their actions on three expressions 1. Unless the book says you can do it you can't 2. Unless the book says you can't do it you can 3. Its easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. Got to love those sailors, but then the fleet has always been the branch of the armed forces that has traditionally had to operate independently of "HIGHER" more than any other branch.
Was going to write something differently however one of the guys I talk to was looking at my script and just scratched his head saying "That's nice but do you have to use so many big words? Who you trying to impress with your vocabulary? Can't you just write this is plain English?" So I am rewriting this and will be publishing hopefully a thoughtful coherent paper instead of an essay that seeks intentionally or unintentionally to look like a scholarly work out to impress those in the academic community while boring to tears those in the field.
Until then I have two messages for my brothers.
To those world famous "Devil Dog" Brothers of mine Semper Fidelis
To those world infamous "Rakkasans", the heroes of Shah-i-Kot Valley NE DESIT VIRTUS
as for the rest of y'all God love and bless everyone of you.
Last thought WHY do you CAV guys always say IF YOU AIN'T SHIT YOU AIN'T CAV? Since I never have been, are, or intend to be SHIT I can't be CAV?
YHWH/GOD/ALLAH bless Colonel James Hallums! Rakkasan Commander! American Hero!Good Night Uncle Chesty-Wherever you are.
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