Stopping Stop Loss raised a number of questions about how to staff the force, with some decrying a perceived drop in quality of new troops, and others calling for a draft which at this time is just the ticket to rally the anti-American Left.
I was asked recently by our local radio station, KTRK, if there wasn’t some other solution steeped in our historical playbook. Of course there is, I replied. Haven’t you heard of the 1st US Volunteer Cavalry, the Rough Riders that TR led up San Juan Hill? TR raised this regiment of cavalry combining his buddies in Ivy Leaguery with some leathery friends from the Old West. Look at pictures of TR in his uniform (Night in the Museum) and his collar brass says USV for US Volunteers. In fact, the raising of regiments was the default American Way of War well into WW2 before the advent of a large standing army.
Where and how can this be done, the Pentagon would wonder to which any Guard or Reserve unit commander could reply with a snort that raising armies, fleets, and air crews is business as usual. A regular service commander is issued his or her troops, while the default Guard or Reserve commander has to stamp his unit out of the ground. When I go to the movies here in Houston, I see ads for the local Air Guard Fighter Squadron. I raised eighty percent of the 5th PSYOP Group (Strategic) in DC within one year of it’s activation back another life time ago.
The fact that the Pentagon raised private military units to avoid calling up the Guard and Reserve units trained for the purpose (and their field grade commanders which might ruin the morale of those on the command list) attests to the fact that units in deed can be stamped out of the ground given proper incentives. In fact, the down side of raising volunteer units historically was that some regiments paid more than others created some healthy competition between units.
Volunteer units made no pretense of sticking around after the war, and hence no threat to established rice bowls. Historically, Regular officers and noncoms were enticed to add starch and spice to the mix of talented amateurs and retreads. This is the way that America used to win it’s wars before careerism raised it’s multiple rotational heads and substituted fighting wars instead of winning them.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Saturday, January 20, 2007
PPPPPP
Since the end of Desert Storm, the mobilization of Reserve and Guard units has been done with “derivative UICs” which are cherry picked lists of unit members called up under a partial unit derivation and when mobilized combined with other cherry picked units to make a provisional unit. The reasons advanced include the rationale that not all unit members were MOS or physically qualified. Well enough to drill but not to fight.
Since MOS (military occupational specialties) are skill sets presumed to have some relevance to unit mission and personal reassignment and career development, the skill sets that went to war were not the skill sets needed for this war. Artillery and Armor units re-equipped, trained, and deployed as “constabulary” units destined for patrolling the roads and alleys of Iraq.
Does this invalidate the foundation for personnel management or the foundation for the existence of units? The evidence suggests that the Personnel Managers, their Super Grades, decided that the existence of trained Reserve and Guard units is valid only as fillers and as “non-union” temporary warriors for non-union seasonal work … like war.
QDR 2006 spells it out in bold terms, but without clearing with Congress that their consistent insistence that Reserve and Guard units have a clear wartime mission is being ignored utterly.
And, worse yet, the QDR 2006 is the quintessential example of the deliberate adoption of the 6P principle (PPPPPP – “Prior Preparation Prevents P*$$ Poor Performance) which is the opposite of the Six Sigma principle of Deming enthusiasts. And it might be said that, despite the best trained, motivated, lead, and equipped, the performance of the progress in Iraq is definitely PP.
QDR 2006 dichotomous shifting includes “From under resourced , standby forces (hollow units) – to fully equipped and fully manned forces (combat ready units)” which means that that the Pentagon views Guard and Reserve units are inherently hollow.
The entire Capstone program mandated by Congress aligning units with combat mission is classic contingency planning. QDR 2006 tosses the entire concept of contingency planning in favor of “proactive” prevention based not on threats, but on capabilities. The QDR 2006 dichotomous shifting requires some innovative thinking, as follows:
“From threat-based planning – to capabilities based planning”, “From peacetime planning – to rapid adaptive planning”, and from “from forces that need to deconflict – to integrated, interdependent forces” which all means that no planning based on Mission, Enemy, Weather and Terrain is required, Modular Stabilized one-size-fits-nothing Brigades can rest in Festung Kansas and pounce with speed, agility, and precision on any and all contingency … without planning.
This no planning modus operandi is officially disclaimed elsewhere in QDR 2006 which calls for a dichotomous shift “from crisis response – to shaping the future” and from “reactive” to “proactive”. I have a hard time envisioning being proactive without threat based peacetime planning. PPPPPP.
While the Democrats are spending useless energy in trying to conduct military operations in Iraq, which they have zero Constitutional authority, they, and the disaffected other Congress members should focus on what is their specified Constitutional authority to do which is to provide for the regulation (doctrine) of the military. It is clear that the Puzzle Palace on the Potomac can’t do it.
Since MOS (military occupational specialties) are skill sets presumed to have some relevance to unit mission and personal reassignment and career development, the skill sets that went to war were not the skill sets needed for this war. Artillery and Armor units re-equipped, trained, and deployed as “constabulary” units destined for patrolling the roads and alleys of Iraq.
Does this invalidate the foundation for personnel management or the foundation for the existence of units? The evidence suggests that the Personnel Managers, their Super Grades, decided that the existence of trained Reserve and Guard units is valid only as fillers and as “non-union” temporary warriors for non-union seasonal work … like war.
QDR 2006 spells it out in bold terms, but without clearing with Congress that their consistent insistence that Reserve and Guard units have a clear wartime mission is being ignored utterly.
And, worse yet, the QDR 2006 is the quintessential example of the deliberate adoption of the 6P principle (PPPPPP – “Prior Preparation Prevents P*$$ Poor Performance) which is the opposite of the Six Sigma principle of Deming enthusiasts. And it might be said that, despite the best trained, motivated, lead, and equipped, the performance of the progress in Iraq is definitely PP.
QDR 2006 dichotomous shifting includes “From under resourced , standby forces (hollow units) – to fully equipped and fully manned forces (combat ready units)” which means that that the Pentagon views Guard and Reserve units are inherently hollow.
The entire Capstone program mandated by Congress aligning units with combat mission is classic contingency planning. QDR 2006 tosses the entire concept of contingency planning in favor of “proactive” prevention based not on threats, but on capabilities. The QDR 2006 dichotomous shifting requires some innovative thinking, as follows:
“From threat-based planning – to capabilities based planning”, “From peacetime planning – to rapid adaptive planning”, and from “from forces that need to deconflict – to integrated, interdependent forces” which all means that no planning based on Mission, Enemy, Weather and Terrain is required, Modular Stabilized one-size-fits-nothing Brigades can rest in Festung Kansas and pounce with speed, agility, and precision on any and all contingency … without planning.
This no planning modus operandi is officially disclaimed elsewhere in QDR 2006 which calls for a dichotomous shift “from crisis response – to shaping the future” and from “reactive” to “proactive”. I have a hard time envisioning being proactive without threat based peacetime planning. PPPPPP.
While the Democrats are spending useless energy in trying to conduct military operations in Iraq, which they have zero Constitutional authority, they, and the disaffected other Congress members should focus on what is their specified Constitutional authority to do which is to provide for the regulation (doctrine) of the military. It is clear that the Puzzle Palace on the Potomac can’t do it.
Monday, January 15, 2007
The Threat, the Task, Two, Three and Four
At present the Battle of Baghdad and the War on Terror is locked in mortal combat … in the halls of Congress and between the A and E Rings in the Pentagon. The former and less significant is broadcast daily on the Telly, while the latter is shrouded in cold fury of a battle of whose bowl is about to be broken. It is a war in which the fate of nations is personified by Bush, Gates and Petraeus on the one hand, and the Dichotomist Ghost of Transformation, not yet dead, on the other as described in the Quadrennial Reviews of 2001 and 204. While much of the dichotomous thinking in the QDR is the result of personnel centric conflict between the services, branches, and components of the Defense Department, it is the result of the psychological conflict between staff functions of intelligence, operations, personnel and logistics.
Intelligence is the determination of the strength, composition, and disposition of the enemy to determine possible courses of action, weaknesses and strengths. Operations is the creation of friendly strength, composition, and dispositions expressed in courses of action that will avoid the enemy’s strengths and exploit his weaknesses to ultimately deny the enemy the ability move, shoot, and communicate and present the enemy with an offer he cannot refuse.
In warfare, operations depend upon intelligence. War is threat driven. In peacetime, we train for war and training is task driven. Intelligence is created to provide a focus for training for the Mission Essential Task List and Skill sets required for military operations.
Likewise in warfare, capabilities and courses of action open for operations is determined by the personnel and logistics available, the former by the imbalance of casualties and replacements, the latter by the provision of gas, ammo, food, and repair parts which require a huge transportation network to move them forward.
In peacetime, personnel turbulence is minimal and little ammo or gas in consumed in garrison operations which is most of the time. Likewise, there is little demand for intelligence in peacetime because the enemy is created for the task, and is provided by known adversaries. Training exercises are rarely fought long enough to exhaust gas, ammo, repair parts, food or replacements to give enough work for the logistics and personnel staff to effectively train on.
The absence of meaningful changes in intelligence, personnel, and logistics in peacetime training gives the operations officer the effective control of unit operations. Operations officer slots, therefore, are real career enhancers. The rest of the staff and the troops they represent are consider “tail” vs the more macho “teeth” of the Six and Three. Thus QDR 2006 “shift in emphasis” in black/white dichotomous terminology includes:
“From threat-based planning – to capabilities-based planning” regardless of who or where the threat may be. Thus Enemy and Terrain are purged from METT-T as a basis for planning. The threat that the S2/G2 might pose to the primacy of the S3/G3 is diminished.
“From an emphasis on (hardware) – to focus on … actionable intelligence” which transfers the blame for a failure to act on enemy information to the intelligence officer who is now has to decide what, if any action, is applicable to the intelligence available … as in the flight numbers and dates of the 9-11 bombers was an intelligence failure.
From reactive response to proactive preventative action, and from “crisis response –to shaping the future, which is capabilities based and not on weather, enemy or terrain … such as the intelligence created to provide precision targets on non existent weapons of mass destruction.
The shift in logistics is from “stove pipes” to “matrix”, from “tail” to “teeth” and “from broad-based industrial mobilization- to targeted commercial solutions” which means privatizing, civilianizing, and outsourcing logistics, particularly in no competition bidding to friends of Dick.
The QDR also enshrines a conflict within the operations community, between operations and planning. Planners are usually a separate organization seated outside the inner circle who plan ahead based on assumptions of mission, enemy, terrain, troops available, time and technology and put their recommendations in OPLANS which can be activated by changing paragraph one (enemy situation) on information from intelligence. This requires those in the inner circle to be bound by the dictates of outsiders (plans, intel, personnel, logistics) and is a threat to the purity and essence of warrior-dom. The QDR continues:
“From predetermined force packages – to tailored, flexible forces”, and from “one size fits all deterrence – to tailored deterrence” which don’t have to deconflict – to integrated, interdependent forces. Deconfliction means task organization to meet METT-TT, and integrated independent forces means one size fits nothing Modular Rotational Expeditionary Brigades based in the States to react quicker to Baghdad than from Germany or Japan.
If Bush, Gates and Petraeus have their way, the Modular Brigades would have to be Civil Affairs, Intelligence, Psychological Operations and Civil Engineering brigades. Since these skills are found primarily in the Guard and Reserves, The need for a larger standing army is placed in jeopardy.
Intelligence is the determination of the strength, composition, and disposition of the enemy to determine possible courses of action, weaknesses and strengths. Operations is the creation of friendly strength, composition, and dispositions expressed in courses of action that will avoid the enemy’s strengths and exploit his weaknesses to ultimately deny the enemy the ability move, shoot, and communicate and present the enemy with an offer he cannot refuse.
In warfare, operations depend upon intelligence. War is threat driven. In peacetime, we train for war and training is task driven. Intelligence is created to provide a focus for training for the Mission Essential Task List and Skill sets required for military operations.
Likewise in warfare, capabilities and courses of action open for operations is determined by the personnel and logistics available, the former by the imbalance of casualties and replacements, the latter by the provision of gas, ammo, food, and repair parts which require a huge transportation network to move them forward.
In peacetime, personnel turbulence is minimal and little ammo or gas in consumed in garrison operations which is most of the time. Likewise, there is little demand for intelligence in peacetime because the enemy is created for the task, and is provided by known adversaries. Training exercises are rarely fought long enough to exhaust gas, ammo, repair parts, food or replacements to give enough work for the logistics and personnel staff to effectively train on.
The absence of meaningful changes in intelligence, personnel, and logistics in peacetime training gives the operations officer the effective control of unit operations. Operations officer slots, therefore, are real career enhancers. The rest of the staff and the troops they represent are consider “tail” vs the more macho “teeth” of the Six and Three. Thus QDR 2006 “shift in emphasis” in black/white dichotomous terminology includes:
“From threat-based planning – to capabilities-based planning” regardless of who or where the threat may be. Thus Enemy and Terrain are purged from METT-T as a basis for planning. The threat that the S2/G2 might pose to the primacy of the S3/G3 is diminished.
“From an emphasis on (hardware) – to focus on … actionable intelligence” which transfers the blame for a failure to act on enemy information to the intelligence officer who is now has to decide what, if any action, is applicable to the intelligence available … as in the flight numbers and dates of the 9-11 bombers was an intelligence failure.
From reactive response to proactive preventative action, and from “crisis response –to shaping the future, which is capabilities based and not on weather, enemy or terrain … such as the intelligence created to provide precision targets on non existent weapons of mass destruction.
The shift in logistics is from “stove pipes” to “matrix”, from “tail” to “teeth” and “from broad-based industrial mobilization- to targeted commercial solutions” which means privatizing, civilianizing, and outsourcing logistics, particularly in no competition bidding to friends of Dick.
The QDR also enshrines a conflict within the operations community, between operations and planning. Planners are usually a separate organization seated outside the inner circle who plan ahead based on assumptions of mission, enemy, terrain, troops available, time and technology and put their recommendations in OPLANS which can be activated by changing paragraph one (enemy situation) on information from intelligence. This requires those in the inner circle to be bound by the dictates of outsiders (plans, intel, personnel, logistics) and is a threat to the purity and essence of warrior-dom. The QDR continues:
“From predetermined force packages – to tailored, flexible forces”, and from “one size fits all deterrence – to tailored deterrence” which don’t have to deconflict – to integrated, interdependent forces. Deconfliction means task organization to meet METT-TT, and integrated independent forces means one size fits nothing Modular Rotational Expeditionary Brigades based in the States to react quicker to Baghdad than from Germany or Japan.
If Bush, Gates and Petraeus have their way, the Modular Brigades would have to be Civil Affairs, Intelligence, Psychological Operations and Civil Engineering brigades. Since these skills are found primarily in the Guard and Reserves, The need for a larger standing army is placed in jeopardy.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Victory Transformed into Defeat
If Transformation had not mangled the Army’s force structure AND that force structure had been mobilized and deployed in accordance with the Army’s then existing doctrine for Stability and Counterinsurgency, we would be back home already with the Iraqi’s having a functioning government. That previous force structure had first been formalized by George C Marshall who created the first true modularized army, the modules being two kinds of battalions: divisional and non-divisional. Group, Brigade, Regiment, Division, Corps, Field Army and Theatre Army headquarters had no force structure except as the conditions of Mission, Enemy, Terrain, Troops and Time and Technology available (METT-TT). Over time, there was a tendency to create fixed tables for these higher levels of command, largely to enhance the grade of the CO.
Marshall’s structure worked from Pearl Harbor through Desert Storm through desert tank warfare, jungle counter insurgency, mountain warfare, urban and just about everything else. As we stood down from previous wars, the size of the Active Army was reduced, sometime very painfully, and many functions were transferred to the Guard and Reserves, The Reserve Forces Act of 1957 established a mobilizable force of 35 divisions organized into Corps and Divisions. After Vietnam, there was a functional division between the Guard which favored the kinds of forces states need, combat, MP, artillery, and engineers while the Reserves took on functions requiring a wider base of talents, and of the combat service support functions.
Under MacNamara, Guard and Reserve units specified organizations went through a crazy quilt of branch and functional changes. A MANG tank battalion I served in had been a regimental tank company converted to a TC personnel carrier battalion and thence back to tanks. The Congress ended the confusion by requiring all reserve and Guard units to have a specified mission tied to a specific contingency. This was called the Capstone alignment and it revolutionized the training of the entire army.
As an MI battalion commander, I supported the 49th Armored Division TXARNG, which supported III Corps in a counterattack mission in NORTHAG in northern Germany. Later, as a MobDes officer, I served as Chief of Intelligence, US Army Japan which itself was split into two components USARJ and XIth Corps, the remainder of the Corps headquarters was HIARNG. Everyone knew where they were intended to go, but that was less important than the training which everyone learned what the expectations were at each level of command. The fact that Saudi Arabia was a relatively minor change as it affected the terrain more than any other factor. Saddam obliged by fighting in a desert with a Soviet manner with Soviet Equipment.
The whole structure was trained to fight under the AirLand Battle concept which was the result of the Command and General Staff College’s effort to rescue the field army from Mathemetactics, a Think Tank abortion. Some mathematician found out that in a typical nine battalion division, only four battalions would be on line with two in brigade reserve and three in division reserve. Such a waste, they thought and the school system was obliged to teach all officers the mathematical formulae to win battles on simplified maps that assumed the Russians were idiots. Fortunately, large scale command post exercises revealed the inevitable collapse of any such formation without a reserve.
Since ThinkTanks are Pentagon auxiliaries, and since the Army’s educational system and font of any serious thinking threatens the sense of control the Pentagon has over the fate of the world, Transformation was invented to wrest control from those who have fought the battle, lived to talk about it, to the ranks of the Civil Service SuperGrades who run the place and keep the brass and the appointees rotating in and out too fast to fix anything.
Additionally, as the major war games showed, the Guard and Reserves were showing a remarkable grasp of the fine points of higher level operations, which was a lot higher than the levels the personnel management people in the Pentagon were aware of, as personnel management ends at the grade of O6 where the General Officer system takes over. The initial deployments to the Balkans and other contingencies began to shock the Regular Establishment to the point that I heard many a Regular (Army, Navy, Air Force) complain that they(the Regulars) couldn’t do anything without a G****m Reservist! Their command post exercises tended to rely on the Log Fairies Four to keep tactical play going with a click of the heels! These are the Gas Fairly, the Ammo Fairy, the Truck Fairy, and the Fix It Fairy …. All in the Army Reserves.
This was an unacceptable allocation of machismo, and during Desert Storm, four ARNG brigades were kept back in the states because they weren’t ”ready”…unlike the hospitals, engineer bridge units, fighter squadrons, etc. There were just too many field and general officer graded non-union heroes about. That had to stop.
From the Korean War on, senior Army commanders have admired the cohesion of Guard and Reserve units in a time when cohesion itself is considered a virtue. Thus was created the concept of rotational unit warfare with big stateside bases to stabilize the rotation of troops. Logically this would apply to the already stable Guard and Reserve units ….but it didn’t with units dismembered with derivative UIC’s and combined into Ad Hoc units. Which, due to the previous training in Capstone alignments actually was made to work.
Rather than call up full transportation groups (which would entail an O-6), this function has been contracted out to unarmed, overpaid (and overweight) civilian truckers. Rather than call up Guard and Reserve Movement Control Centers, Material Control Centers, Rear Area Operations Centers with Guard Lt Brigades and MP Brigades to protect them we ran unescorted convoys on unguarded roads into IED’s and ambushes.
Rather than call up the PYSOP and Civil Affairs Brigades and Groups (too many O-6’), the Pentagon relied on the statements of refugees and political exiles, a source that any MI interrogator would tell you is unreliable, and both Bremer and Sanchez rejected the advice of the few mobilized CA reservists.
Transformation focused solely on combat brigades and has given only a sidelong glance at what the echelons of command about brigade look like. Fortunately for Capstone and the Army’s Educational System, there are enough people to cobble together a working command and control system. Transformation envisioned that the Modular Brigades would be employed in the fixed task organization designed in the Pentagon. Fortunately, no one in the field is that stupid.
If Pre-Tranformational doctrine had been used, there would have been a Theater of War established with a Field Army and perhaps two or three Corps headquarters. The structure of the Combat Support, Combat Service Support and order of battle would have been task organized as needed, with as many Civil Affairs groups and brigades as combat.
The existing doctrine on the books back them is included in the new FM3-24.
Marshall’s structure worked from Pearl Harbor through Desert Storm through desert tank warfare, jungle counter insurgency, mountain warfare, urban and just about everything else. As we stood down from previous wars, the size of the Active Army was reduced, sometime very painfully, and many functions were transferred to the Guard and Reserves, The Reserve Forces Act of 1957 established a mobilizable force of 35 divisions organized into Corps and Divisions. After Vietnam, there was a functional division between the Guard which favored the kinds of forces states need, combat, MP, artillery, and engineers while the Reserves took on functions requiring a wider base of talents, and of the combat service support functions.
Under MacNamara, Guard and Reserve units specified organizations went through a crazy quilt of branch and functional changes. A MANG tank battalion I served in had been a regimental tank company converted to a TC personnel carrier battalion and thence back to tanks. The Congress ended the confusion by requiring all reserve and Guard units to have a specified mission tied to a specific contingency. This was called the Capstone alignment and it revolutionized the training of the entire army.
As an MI battalion commander, I supported the 49th Armored Division TXARNG, which supported III Corps in a counterattack mission in NORTHAG in northern Germany. Later, as a MobDes officer, I served as Chief of Intelligence, US Army Japan which itself was split into two components USARJ and XIth Corps, the remainder of the Corps headquarters was HIARNG. Everyone knew where they were intended to go, but that was less important than the training which everyone learned what the expectations were at each level of command. The fact that Saudi Arabia was a relatively minor change as it affected the terrain more than any other factor. Saddam obliged by fighting in a desert with a Soviet manner with Soviet Equipment.
The whole structure was trained to fight under the AirLand Battle concept which was the result of the Command and General Staff College’s effort to rescue the field army from Mathemetactics, a Think Tank abortion. Some mathematician found out that in a typical nine battalion division, only four battalions would be on line with two in brigade reserve and three in division reserve. Such a waste, they thought and the school system was obliged to teach all officers the mathematical formulae to win battles on simplified maps that assumed the Russians were idiots. Fortunately, large scale command post exercises revealed the inevitable collapse of any such formation without a reserve.
Since ThinkTanks are Pentagon auxiliaries, and since the Army’s educational system and font of any serious thinking threatens the sense of control the Pentagon has over the fate of the world, Transformation was invented to wrest control from those who have fought the battle, lived to talk about it, to the ranks of the Civil Service SuperGrades who run the place and keep the brass and the appointees rotating in and out too fast to fix anything.
Additionally, as the major war games showed, the Guard and Reserves were showing a remarkable grasp of the fine points of higher level operations, which was a lot higher than the levels the personnel management people in the Pentagon were aware of, as personnel management ends at the grade of O6 where the General Officer system takes over. The initial deployments to the Balkans and other contingencies began to shock the Regular Establishment to the point that I heard many a Regular (Army, Navy, Air Force) complain that they(the Regulars) couldn’t do anything without a G****m Reservist! Their command post exercises tended to rely on the Log Fairies Four to keep tactical play going with a click of the heels! These are the Gas Fairly, the Ammo Fairy, the Truck Fairy, and the Fix It Fairy …. All in the Army Reserves.
This was an unacceptable allocation of machismo, and during Desert Storm, four ARNG brigades were kept back in the states because they weren’t ”ready”…unlike the hospitals, engineer bridge units, fighter squadrons, etc. There were just too many field and general officer graded non-union heroes about. That had to stop.
From the Korean War on, senior Army commanders have admired the cohesion of Guard and Reserve units in a time when cohesion itself is considered a virtue. Thus was created the concept of rotational unit warfare with big stateside bases to stabilize the rotation of troops. Logically this would apply to the already stable Guard and Reserve units ….but it didn’t with units dismembered with derivative UIC’s and combined into Ad Hoc units. Which, due to the previous training in Capstone alignments actually was made to work.
Rather than call up full transportation groups (which would entail an O-6), this function has been contracted out to unarmed, overpaid (and overweight) civilian truckers. Rather than call up Guard and Reserve Movement Control Centers, Material Control Centers, Rear Area Operations Centers with Guard Lt Brigades and MP Brigades to protect them we ran unescorted convoys on unguarded roads into IED’s and ambushes.
Rather than call up the PYSOP and Civil Affairs Brigades and Groups (too many O-6’), the Pentagon relied on the statements of refugees and political exiles, a source that any MI interrogator would tell you is unreliable, and both Bremer and Sanchez rejected the advice of the few mobilized CA reservists.
Transformation focused solely on combat brigades and has given only a sidelong glance at what the echelons of command about brigade look like. Fortunately for Capstone and the Army’s Educational System, there are enough people to cobble together a working command and control system. Transformation envisioned that the Modular Brigades would be employed in the fixed task organization designed in the Pentagon. Fortunately, no one in the field is that stupid.
If Pre-Tranformational doctrine had been used, there would have been a Theater of War established with a Field Army and perhaps two or three Corps headquarters. The structure of the Combat Support, Combat Service Support and order of battle would have been task organized as needed, with as many Civil Affairs groups and brigades as combat.
The existing doctrine on the books back them is included in the new FM3-24.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Without CORDS, Petraeus and W will trip
The President’s new plan for winning in Iraq, released on January 10 came in three different pieces, the Wehnergram introducing LTG Petraeus and FM 3-24 Counter-Insurgency came first. Then the Iraq Fact Sheet that showed the influence of the Pentagon in mitigating the loss of control FM 3-24 would have on personnel management policies including Rotational Warfare ensuring the rotation of O-6 command positions, and an increase in the size of the Regular Army, thus ending the threat of a competent National Guard and Reserve force. The third was the President’s speech which, in my view was the most Presidential presentation he has made since taking office, but unaware that his plan has already been emasculated.
Without a CORDS, Petraeus will trip and get entangled in the ganglions of Beltway politics and turf wars in the Palais Pentagon. CORDS (Civil Operations and Rural Development) was the result of President Johnson’s demand that all the agencies in Vietnam get their act together. Just agreeing to meet and hash out differences didn’t work, and the mish mash they hatched serves as the basis for reasons for our defeat in Vietnam. CORDS got those disparate agencies under one roof and enabled the civilian agencies to obtain resources from the military they previously could only dream about.
CORDS was effective and in three years the Viet Cong/NVA were driven away from the populated parts of Vietnam.
Unity of Effort is a basic principle in love, war, business and politics. FM 3-24 lays down the ways that this can be achieved in a coalition environment. It doesn’t necessarily mean one super leader. The National Incident Management System (NIMS) creates a framework for multiple agencies including volunteers to have a unified effort. What has been happening in Iraq is a repeat of Desert One where interagency rivalry sabotaged the hostage rescue attempt in Iran. Coordination regardless of hat size made the difference between New Orleans ability to react to disaster and Houston’s.
LTG Petraeus must be given the kind of authority and mechanisms to create a NIMS and/or CORDS-like structure, or W will be impeached by Christmas.
And that’s the least of our worries.
Without a CORDS, Petraeus will trip and get entangled in the ganglions of Beltway politics and turf wars in the Palais Pentagon. CORDS (Civil Operations and Rural Development) was the result of President Johnson’s demand that all the agencies in Vietnam get their act together. Just agreeing to meet and hash out differences didn’t work, and the mish mash they hatched serves as the basis for reasons for our defeat in Vietnam. CORDS got those disparate agencies under one roof and enabled the civilian agencies to obtain resources from the military they previously could only dream about.
CORDS was effective and in three years the Viet Cong/NVA were driven away from the populated parts of Vietnam.
Unity of Effort is a basic principle in love, war, business and politics. FM 3-24 lays down the ways that this can be achieved in a coalition environment. It doesn’t necessarily mean one super leader. The National Incident Management System (NIMS) creates a framework for multiple agencies including volunteers to have a unified effort. What has been happening in Iraq is a repeat of Desert One where interagency rivalry sabotaged the hostage rescue attempt in Iran. Coordination regardless of hat size made the difference between New Orleans ability to react to disaster and Houston’s.
LTG Petraeus must be given the kind of authority and mechanisms to create a NIMS and/or CORDS-like structure, or W will be impeached by Christmas.
And that’s the least of our worries.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Escalation -The Return of the Peoples Park
My hopes that the new Democratic regime change would include a few grown ups were dashed when Pelosi of San Francisco trotted out that hoary old Buzzword “Escalation” from the halcyon days of Hate Asbury, Herpes, LSD, tie dyed, dropped out, tripped in Viet Cong activism of the Sixties and Seventies. Escalation means that any alteration in order of battle, tactics, strategy, or techniques by the US to face escalation of the same type by the enemy, the Viet Cong or North Vietnamese.
It’s classic Buzziology and true to the principles elicited by George Orwell in his books, 1984, Animal Farm, and Homage to Catalonia. Real escalation, such as the current Jihadi offensive in and around Baghdad is not escalation; it is evidence of US interference in native affairs. Any attempt to deal with Jihadi escalation (good) is American escalation (bad),
For those who followed the course of the War in Vietnam, each time the NVA/VC launched a major offensive, the people at the Peoples Park took another toke. When allied forces counter attacked or dared to launch a pre-emptive attack, the Minions of Gozer poured out of their communes and classrooms by the hundreds of thousands across the planet with identical chants, signs, slogans, porta-potties, and buses to swarm the streets of three continents, all done spontaneously on order like immediate air strikes.
The Adult ego state in a healthy head, would simply ask, “why is the US adding troops any different from the other side adding troops?” The simplest answer is that the other side gone on the offensive, such as the Germans did at the Bulge, and we must deal with it.
The are a few grown ups in the Democratic party including John Edwards who knows that the current “Surge” is not just to defeat an Jihadi/Insurgent Surge, but as part of the new strategic plan that the Democrats and some Quitters in the GOP say doesn’t exist. The tragedy of this comedy is that after four years of war, the President finally read the manual. Remember the old adage, after everything else has failed, read the instructions. And the instructions, upgraded from the old manual, are in FM 3-24 Counter Insurgency available for download:
http://usacac.army.mil/CAC/Repository/Materials/USA-USMCCOINNewsRelease.pdf
http://usacac.leavenworth.army.mil/CAC/milreview/English/CAC-COINFILES/COINREADER_WEB.pdf
The only Surge that counts in all this is the deployment of LTG Petraeus and whomever he brings with him to Iraq. LTG Petraeus learned quickly that dealing with Stability Operations, Peace Keeping and Counter Insurgency with military forces requires an integrated unified coordinated effort to include economic development, effective governance, essential services (police and fire, water, electricity, schools, transportation, medical and sanitation) are just as much a military concern as fire and maneuver. Based on the successes and failures in the last fifty years, all these efforts must be coordinated under one umbrella which may include a variety of command relations such as inviting NGO’s to work “with” governmental elements. This is nothing more than the “incident management system” has been evolving to deal with tsunamis, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and fires everywhere.
This is the real surge and that is what scares the Old Left, still stuck in the great ”World Revolution” of Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Mao and Ho, all True Communists. Today’s Anti-American Left spouting Marxism is, interestingly, not True Communism, but Neo-Communism. The True Communist was concern with restoring lost labor value stolen by Capitalism to the Working Class, the Proletariat.
The Neo-Communist has been rejected by the Working Class who now prefers to be called Middle Class, and as long as they get their six-pack, pickup, three bedrooms and a bath, union pension and health benefits, don’t give a rat’s ass about the Revolution. This rejection has been taken to heart by the Neo-Commie to now champions the unworking class, and the inanimate like the Environment to replace the games system that restores the balance of the Great Game of Buzziology, the role switching game of Victim, Rescuer, and Prosecutor.
Pendulums swing, and it can be expected that we will see politics swing from banning same sex marriage to requiring it. From establishing the Christian church as the National Church to affirmative action in churching is inevitable.
Or, perhaps the dedicated few could read the manual.
It’s classic Buzziology and true to the principles elicited by George Orwell in his books, 1984, Animal Farm, and Homage to Catalonia. Real escalation, such as the current Jihadi offensive in and around Baghdad is not escalation; it is evidence of US interference in native affairs. Any attempt to deal with Jihadi escalation (good) is American escalation (bad),
For those who followed the course of the War in Vietnam, each time the NVA/VC launched a major offensive, the people at the Peoples Park took another toke. When allied forces counter attacked or dared to launch a pre-emptive attack, the Minions of Gozer poured out of their communes and classrooms by the hundreds of thousands across the planet with identical chants, signs, slogans, porta-potties, and buses to swarm the streets of three continents, all done spontaneously on order like immediate air strikes.
The Adult ego state in a healthy head, would simply ask, “why is the US adding troops any different from the other side adding troops?” The simplest answer is that the other side gone on the offensive, such as the Germans did at the Bulge, and we must deal with it.
The are a few grown ups in the Democratic party including John Edwards who knows that the current “Surge” is not just to defeat an Jihadi/Insurgent Surge, but as part of the new strategic plan that the Democrats and some Quitters in the GOP say doesn’t exist. The tragedy of this comedy is that after four years of war, the President finally read the manual. Remember the old adage, after everything else has failed, read the instructions. And the instructions, upgraded from the old manual, are in FM 3-24 Counter Insurgency available for download:
http://usacac.army.mil/CAC/Repository/Materials/USA-USMCCOINNewsRelease.pdf
http://usacac.leavenworth.army.mil/CAC/milreview/English/CAC-COINFILES/COINREADER_WEB.pdf
The only Surge that counts in all this is the deployment of LTG Petraeus and whomever he brings with him to Iraq. LTG Petraeus learned quickly that dealing with Stability Operations, Peace Keeping and Counter Insurgency with military forces requires an integrated unified coordinated effort to include economic development, effective governance, essential services (police and fire, water, electricity, schools, transportation, medical and sanitation) are just as much a military concern as fire and maneuver. Based on the successes and failures in the last fifty years, all these efforts must be coordinated under one umbrella which may include a variety of command relations such as inviting NGO’s to work “with” governmental elements. This is nothing more than the “incident management system” has been evolving to deal with tsunamis, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and fires everywhere.
This is the real surge and that is what scares the Old Left, still stuck in the great ”World Revolution” of Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Mao and Ho, all True Communists. Today’s Anti-American Left spouting Marxism is, interestingly, not True Communism, but Neo-Communism. The True Communist was concern with restoring lost labor value stolen by Capitalism to the Working Class, the Proletariat.
The Neo-Communist has been rejected by the Working Class who now prefers to be called Middle Class, and as long as they get their six-pack, pickup, three bedrooms and a bath, union pension and health benefits, don’t give a rat’s ass about the Revolution. This rejection has been taken to heart by the Neo-Commie to now champions the unworking class, and the inanimate like the Environment to replace the games system that restores the balance of the Great Game of Buzziology, the role switching game of Victim, Rescuer, and Prosecutor.
Pendulums swing, and it can be expected that we will see politics swing from banning same sex marriage to requiring it. From establishing the Christian church as the National Church to affirmative action in churching is inevitable.
Or, perhaps the dedicated few could read the manual.
Thursday, January 4, 2007
Egotism in Terrorism
Terror, as in inducing fear, is at the foundation of law and order. Without fear of consequence or happenstance, there can be no sense of order on the freeways of life. Speed limits, stop signs are advisory only, as in Texas, or they induce a sense of apprehension in the event of cop or collision. The systematic use of terror, as in lurking patrol car, radar trap, or random acts of terror such as the cop on the beat are intended to strike fear and terror in the hearts of evildoers.
Likewise on the field of battle, the application of force and violence in a given medium (land, sea, air, space) intended to smash something, grab something or brag about it is at the heart of warfare, love, and politics. The mere presence of fearsome Ghurkas on the battlefield is enough to achieve the same as grazing fields of fire. Nuclear warfare and the bombing of civilians in German and Japanese cities in WW2 are considered legitimate insofar as it represents “taking the war to the enemy”.
Bragging rights are often more important than the physical affects such as the Doolittle Raid which induced the Japanese to expose their fleet to destruction at Midway. George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware resulted in a victory over a relatively small force at Trenton which rallied the American cause in one of its many dark hours. Bragging rights are the primary purpose of Jihadi terror in their War of Terror on the West.
Terror as a means to an end is one thing, but terror that is the end itself is the domain of the True Believer acting out rage and frustration rooted in childhood as a Battered Brat. This is the domain of personal demons projected on the face of God and the faces of the innocent. 9-11 didn’t accomplish much for Islam except the bragging rights of over-aged six-year olds on a temper tantrum. Only the kindergarten clap trap of the Neo-Cons rescued the Jihadis from rejection by Muslims of good conscience and faith.
It’s time for some grownups to take over. But with the recent ascension of the Democrats to power on the Hill, I heard the Counter-Culture clap trap of the Sixties echo in the halls of Congress, led by Cindy Sheehan. It seems that the Bastard is to be replaced by the Bitch.
Likewise on the field of battle, the application of force and violence in a given medium (land, sea, air, space) intended to smash something, grab something or brag about it is at the heart of warfare, love, and politics. The mere presence of fearsome Ghurkas on the battlefield is enough to achieve the same as grazing fields of fire. Nuclear warfare and the bombing of civilians in German and Japanese cities in WW2 are considered legitimate insofar as it represents “taking the war to the enemy”.
Bragging rights are often more important than the physical affects such as the Doolittle Raid which induced the Japanese to expose their fleet to destruction at Midway. George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware resulted in a victory over a relatively small force at Trenton which rallied the American cause in one of its many dark hours. Bragging rights are the primary purpose of Jihadi terror in their War of Terror on the West.
Terror as a means to an end is one thing, but terror that is the end itself is the domain of the True Believer acting out rage and frustration rooted in childhood as a Battered Brat. This is the domain of personal demons projected on the face of God and the faces of the innocent. 9-11 didn’t accomplish much for Islam except the bragging rights of over-aged six-year olds on a temper tantrum. Only the kindergarten clap trap of the Neo-Cons rescued the Jihadis from rejection by Muslims of good conscience and faith.
It’s time for some grownups to take over. But with the recent ascension of the Democrats to power on the Hill, I heard the Counter-Culture clap trap of the Sixties echo in the halls of Congress, led by Cindy Sheehan. It seems that the Bastard is to be replaced by the Bitch.
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
The THEY/THEM Conspiracy
The only thing better than a really bad villain our hero can vanquish just before the final credits (or mid term election), is the evil conspiracy called THEY (aka THEM), that justifies all manner of sacrifice, hard work, and donations. A really good THEY/THEM has all the characteristics noted of the dysfunctional Father and Mother noted in Hypocracy Analysis, a new analytical tool based on Transactional Analysis (TA). THEY/THEM are abusive, manipulative, and mindless. Defeating the THEY/THEM requires the creation of the equally dysfunctional Heroic counterpart: pure, courageous, and therapeutic. In such a way, the Drama Triangle between victim, rescuer, and prosecutor is played out on a global scale.
While Darth Vader can be vanquished, Saddam hanged, or Castro may eventually die, the evil they did can live on past them so long as Evil is needed to rally the faithful, and can turn a simple story into a series or prime time show.
CNN’s Arch-bigot of Demagoguery, Lou Dobbs, is a master propagandist and orator who has raised KlanSpeak to acceptable parlance not seen since the death of the American Eugenics movement and Nazi racial “science” with his “broken border” pitch. Likewise, the Nazi invention of the Jewish Capitalist-Communist conspiracy is ripped off in his “War on the Middle Class” by the Wing-Nuts of both Dems and GOP. A really good THEY/THEM includes diametrically opposite elements in true DoubleThink and DoubleSpeak tradition of George Orwell. It’s classic Buzziology by combing just the Cold Pricklies of opposing concepts into a DoubleBuzz.
The eternal Bolshevik, Noam Chomsky, and the Reactionary Progressives on the Left, consider the Free Market as the place where Capitalists and their running dog lackeys in the Media conspire to steal the surplus labor value of the People, particularly in matters of global trade. It appears that if Harry gets a pay raise, Mary has to have a pay cut as economics is a zero sum game. In order to protect the People who are helpless without the selfless help of the Activist, who seeks to replace the conspiracy of the Capitalist with Committees of the Untenured, Unwashed and Unworking (for which the Russian word is “Soviet”) to allocated goods and services on the basis of your needs which they will decide.
Thus the Activist, Anti-War, Protesting, Resisting, Peace loving Anti-Globalizationist can hurl Molotov cocktails, burn cars, and smash Starbucks in the name of Peace, and Economic Justice. Combing the DoubleBuzz of Peace and War is a serious ClusterBuzz.
Religious fundamentalism, particularly of the religions of the “Book” and the God of Abraham is particularly vicious, and in clear contradiction with the basic tenets of those religions. In the name of a merciful God, nineteen flew into the World Trade Center, to strike at the heart of the Great Satan … Us. And on Iraqi roads, well educated dedicated young detonate themselves against targets of militant value: schools, mosques, soldiers and politicians.
While many call the current conflagration a clash of civilizations and a clash of ideology, it is not. It is a the acting out of infantile rages cloaked in the same cloth that made the Emperor’s New Clothes. What is needed in times such as these are the GrownUps.
GrownUps are more successful in not confusing the real Parent, Adult and Child from their replication within a Not-OK child. The Parent replicated in the Child borrows the clothing and parodies the actions of the real parent whether nurturing or protecting. One senses the difference when child like gestures, body language, and inflection of strong emotion such a rage or lust is present which is inconsistent with true nurturing or protecting. Lou Dobbs’s petulant stance with folded arms and sideways stance, is a pure “No” stance familiar to parents of all ages.
The trick in hooking the GrownUp is to give the facts to the Adult, get permission from the Parent (cultural and parental norms) and an appeal to the Child’s sense of fun and need for security … in short, Greed. Greed has a bad rap, but greed is the single most reliable emotion for it stands for a roof over the head, a bed to sleep in, food to eat, an education for the kids, and the respect of one’s peers. In the RW (Real World) it’s called Diplomacy or “Doing Business”.
It’s the balance of greed that fuels our Constitution, not the Buzziology. It’s time to grow up, it’s time to Do Business.
While Darth Vader can be vanquished, Saddam hanged, or Castro may eventually die, the evil they did can live on past them so long as Evil is needed to rally the faithful, and can turn a simple story into a series or prime time show.
CNN’s Arch-bigot of Demagoguery, Lou Dobbs, is a master propagandist and orator who has raised KlanSpeak to acceptable parlance not seen since the death of the American Eugenics movement and Nazi racial “science” with his “broken border” pitch. Likewise, the Nazi invention of the Jewish Capitalist-Communist conspiracy is ripped off in his “War on the Middle Class” by the Wing-Nuts of both Dems and GOP. A really good THEY/THEM includes diametrically opposite elements in true DoubleThink and DoubleSpeak tradition of George Orwell. It’s classic Buzziology by combing just the Cold Pricklies of opposing concepts into a DoubleBuzz.
The eternal Bolshevik, Noam Chomsky, and the Reactionary Progressives on the Left, consider the Free Market as the place where Capitalists and their running dog lackeys in the Media conspire to steal the surplus labor value of the People, particularly in matters of global trade. It appears that if Harry gets a pay raise, Mary has to have a pay cut as economics is a zero sum game. In order to protect the People who are helpless without the selfless help of the Activist, who seeks to replace the conspiracy of the Capitalist with Committees of the Untenured, Unwashed and Unworking (for which the Russian word is “Soviet”) to allocated goods and services on the basis of your needs which they will decide.
Thus the Activist, Anti-War, Protesting, Resisting, Peace loving Anti-Globalizationist can hurl Molotov cocktails, burn cars, and smash Starbucks in the name of Peace, and Economic Justice. Combing the DoubleBuzz of Peace and War is a serious ClusterBuzz.
Religious fundamentalism, particularly of the religions of the “Book” and the God of Abraham is particularly vicious, and in clear contradiction with the basic tenets of those religions. In the name of a merciful God, nineteen flew into the World Trade Center, to strike at the heart of the Great Satan … Us. And on Iraqi roads, well educated dedicated young detonate themselves against targets of militant value: schools, mosques, soldiers and politicians.
While many call the current conflagration a clash of civilizations and a clash of ideology, it is not. It is a the acting out of infantile rages cloaked in the same cloth that made the Emperor’s New Clothes. What is needed in times such as these are the GrownUps.
GrownUps are more successful in not confusing the real Parent, Adult and Child from their replication within a Not-OK child. The Parent replicated in the Child borrows the clothing and parodies the actions of the real parent whether nurturing or protecting. One senses the difference when child like gestures, body language, and inflection of strong emotion such a rage or lust is present which is inconsistent with true nurturing or protecting. Lou Dobbs’s petulant stance with folded arms and sideways stance, is a pure “No” stance familiar to parents of all ages.
The trick in hooking the GrownUp is to give the facts to the Adult, get permission from the Parent (cultural and parental norms) and an appeal to the Child’s sense of fun and need for security … in short, Greed. Greed has a bad rap, but greed is the single most reliable emotion for it stands for a roof over the head, a bed to sleep in, food to eat, an education for the kids, and the respect of one’s peers. In the RW (Real World) it’s called Diplomacy or “Doing Business”.
It’s the balance of greed that fuels our Constitution, not the Buzziology. It’s time to grow up, it’s time to Do Business.
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