Showing posts with label military doctrine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label military doctrine. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

The Witch and the Pendulum



The Dark Side of Mom and Dad often is a domestic screaming match between a Manipulative, Vindictive Bitch and a Murderous, Vicious Bastard.  Heard often against the clicking of an over worked air conditioner floating in trailer parks, and gated communities as well.  Aggregated it represents itself in politics in just about everywhere.  Here, in God’s Country, it is the core difference of the angry side of the Democratic and Republican Parties, and replicated within in many a contentious fragment.

The Bright of the Mom-Dad dichotomy is the Nurture and Protection of the Family with a dramatic variant of the Knight, Nurse and Infant.  Kissing babies is a political must.  And everything a politician does is “for the children”.

So swings the Pendulum between the light and dark, between mom and dad from extreme to extreme.  Sometimes there is more than one pendulum swinging and from different directions.  That’s called LIFE.'

Pardon the mixed metaphors but there are True Believers of each slice riding upon the blades hurling bolts of bullshit and veracity at each other, with the throwing oft more valuable than hitting.  That’s called propaganda (as in propagating the faith).  In Transactional Analysis, it is called Stamp Collecting, Games and Scripts, all of which are useful in political analysis.


While there appears to be swings of the blade each decade, the current swipe and America has taken about fifty years to reach full force, starting in the Grey Flannel Days of the Fifties, triggered by the Sixties, tripped out by the Seventies, indulged in the Eighties, and beginning with Orange Juice the counter attack began against the Psychedelic, Tie died, Daddy Hating Progressive Left by the Commie/Mommy hating, Retro Fixated Isolationist Straight and Narrow. 


Then there are the neighbors, bill collectors, employers, and busy bodies whose purpose in life is to make your life a benefit to theirs, by adding or subtracting.  Meddlers from afar have included the French, the British, and the Russians.  The United States used to be called a Republic until the United Kingdom sold the idea that the UK and US were democracies…Republican was not an Irish option. 
Since then the People’s Democratic Republics have been undermining the Republic in the name of something that is not in the Constitution.  This time, the Tsar has returned without the Democracy defect and seeking to drive the US from foreign soils, water and air that threatens Mother Russia.




The Left has been abandoned by Russia, and the underlying purpose of Progressivism to undermine the US, has been shifted to the Straight and Narrow.  It is time for the rest of us to get off the swing and get down to work.





Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Pork, Fake Pork, Hogwash and the Politically Powerful


Parole Officer on Earth in Elysium

The purpose of life is to live, for the individual and the family.  That depends upon Feeding and Breeding, neither of which is much good without bringing home the bacon as in Pork. 
Pork is some concrete benefit to the voter’s district, job, family, and community.  Pork is honest, something useful in the cultural survivability strategy from Food & Family by Roles to Nurture and Protect, in accordance with Rules regarding Social Status and Tools to make it happen, leading back to dinner and a date, feeding and breeding, or not.  There is a direct link between survival and the pork.  Pork is honest.  The question is, always, whose pork is this? And where’s the Pork?
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Absent real pork, the resources of the policy, tribe, or chamber of commerce eventually cannot sustain the numbers and die off, or dissipate.  It takes, a critical mass, not the uniform efforts of the polity to sustain the numbers.  The Simba and the Stallion have exclusive fornication rights in their pride or herd. The lone stallion of legend is an outsider.  Humans provide an alternate method of gaining political dominance, food, and sex.

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The Roles, Rules and Tools:
The biologically driven roles of survival goes to the XX/XY exchange of precious bodily fluids giving rise to the Children who must be Nurtured and Protected.  Psychologically this works out to three favorite roles played by people both sick and healthy, that of Rescuing and Protecting the Victim.  People get off playing one or more of these roles, regardless of if Pork is involved.  All is necessary to activate the trilogy is the appearance or creation of the Villain (real, fake, hogwash) in order to activate the fears and ambitions of the Victim, Rescuer, and/or Protector.

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Precious body fluids…Dr Stranglove.

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From Dr Strangelove

Villains, in fact, are someone else’s trilogy of nurture and protect their young.  Except we invoke nasty motives to activate the survival instincts of the innocent. 
And Jodie Foster in Elysium as Secretary of Defense, “Do you have children?”

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From the movie "Elysium" with Matt Damon and Jodie Foster

Pork Technical definitions:

2.       Hogwash favors someone else’s Pork.  Anti-fracking, drilling and oil exploration favors Russian E&P. 

3.       Fake Pork denies Pork for others, without a pork payback.  Anti-immigration policies deny pork to immigrants without pork for the locals.  It is a zero-sum game in which someone gains if someone else loses.  Like at the dinner table. 

4.       Make believe pork is Fake Pork without a real winner or loser.  No food, no dinner table.  The present convulsions of the Islamacate* world of Islamdom in violent extremism is fake pork, as is most of the Western response.  Oil is Pork.

DNA, CULTURE and SURVIVAL

* All of these are normal reactions in the quest to nurture and protect the family and community.  In the Animal Kingdom, the selection and control of what female gets the Y (XY) chromosome from the male to enhance the survivability of the female’s progeny.  The males’ priority protective strategy of his Y goes to denial of any other’s Y into his harem.  

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In-breeding and Adultery
Adultery is nature’s way to prevent in-breeding with both male and female seeking to enrich the blood line.  Fake Pork is the other males and female need to prevent such cross breeding which may alter the balance of power in the tribe.  Fake Pork and Hogwash have important roles in the Psychological Role, Sociological Rules, and Technological Tools to make up the survival culture of the polity, tribe, family or battalion.  Thus the biological basis for troubling times, stresses, and bloody war is a necessary part of preventing in-breeding. And for breeding healthy offspring. 

Stamp Collecting in Drama
At present, the public mind is consumed with the introduction of a New Villain to replace the Red Menace, and that is “Islamic Extremism”.  The Red menace was set on stealing the Pork and running the polity, while Islamic Extremism is merely to create the illusion that the Pork will walk away.  The biggest fool in this tragedy is the Islamic extremist or terrorist is that there is no pork in the equation for the Umma. Only fake pork and hogwash.

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Consider the role of the protection of XX/XY swap of precious bodily fluids in Islamdom in the veil and robes found in many Islamicate* societies is a collective women’s fake pork effort to keep out the competition.  Or maybe an elaborate hogwash.

*ISLAMICATE AND ISLAMDOM
*Islamacate is the term used by Daniel Pipes to distinguish between a society that in part runs on Islamic rules and regulations, and in part with other influences to mollify and adapt where Islam lacks the necessary flexibility and profit.
The Qur'an and the Hadith Reports nowhere prescribe mosque decorations or attitudes toward rulers, yet these did typically resemble each other across Islamdom. Lacking a term for what is characteristic of the Muslim experience but not required by the Islamic faith or law, Marshall G. S. Hodgson coined the term "Islamicate."
At the time of this writing there is a mass movement underway to keep the US free of the Sharia XY chromosome as if by insidious inclusion, the republic would convert to Islam, instead of the default Protestant mindset.  This Protestant mindset, so closely tied to the greatness of America, has always felt threatened by foreign religious XY or XX chromosomes such as Catholicism. It wasn’t until a Soviet sniper sainted JFK with a bullet that the furor over Papist influence in America dissipated.
That’s how serious it gets,

Hogwash, Washing Someone Else’s Pork
By way of contrast, Hogwash is washing someone else’s pork which leverages the roles of rescuer, victim, protector vs villainy, even when there is no pork benefit from the Hogwash.   Sometimes hogwash is often bullshit. 
 
Communist Activists in Action
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By way of example in the current political imbroglio starting with the Democrats (liberals, progressives) with their demands for student loan deferments, schooling and medical care for the less fortunate constitute pork for the less fortunate, but hogwash for the affluent advocates seeking to play rescuer and protector to the stupid and unwashed. 

The latter Democratic Hogwash campaigns against fracking, offshore drilling, nuclear power and the Polar Ice Melt are camouflage for someone else’s pork, which is to say the Russian Energy and Defense Industries.  Long standing linkages back to the days of the Comintern of the Thirties theoretically in line with Communist World Conquest, but now are acting in the corporate interests of Gasprom, Lukoil and  Uralvagonzavod. 

The flap over depleted uranium rounds in Leftish Academia after Russian built tanks were shredded by uranium depleted rounds from relatively small cannon. 

Inverse Attribution.
What simplifies the confusion is the application of the Law of the Inverse Attribution Reflex (LIAR). Inverse Attribution (Bragging & Blaming).
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Accusations by the Left of Corporate Greed, Wall Street Avarice and Capitalist Excess fall under the category of inverse attribution (blaming with one’s strongest vice) as greed, avarice and excess are inherent in the offensive nature of the defense of pork.   Likewise, the Right’s accusation of the Liberal’s Class Warfare, is an example of the Right’s War against the “welfare cheat” and losers, and in favor of the protection of wealthy welfare (tax breaks, contracts, etc).

GREAT AMERICA
Before there was a Buchanan, or a Trump, there were the isolationists and the elite culminating in WW 2 and the Cold War.  Well illustrated in the movie, the Good Shepherd. 

As Matt Damon put in in The Good Shepherd “The rest of you just visiting” in response to Joe Pesci’s comment concerning what Jews, Blacks, Catholics, and Italians had in their cultures, asking what did “youse guys have”

“The United States of America.  The rest of you are just visiting”
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Matt Damon in the Good Shepherd


 Not long after “Mother” left the agency, the collective repression and control of the normal irrepressible American spirit, failed and the demons of chaos, revolution, and psychedelic tie died non conformity were let slip resulting in the first major defeat of US forces in war.  That was the Pork of the Sixties and Seventies, hogwash and fake pork. 

Great music, terrible clothes, and the counter counter-revolutionary restriction of the law enforcement capabilities of the nation were trimmed to protect future treasonous endeavors of the pro-Soviet kind.   Communism has now morphed into Russian imperial capitalism and the Celestial Empire of China have been restored to what was before the age of Steam powered ships. 

Inversely Constitutional
The Conservative side  of the political scramble this current election cycle is heavy into hogwash with links to pork not so clear.  Save to sanctify in protect the top one percent. Certain themes made by alleged Conservative punditry, if taken seriously, would call for the violent overthrow of the Constitution to be replaced by a designated dictator subject of back room manipulation.   These are some of the popular arguments:

1.       Courts are supposed to interpret the law, not make it. Since the Anglo-American legal and political systems are based on precedent, case law, and the Common Law which cases go back before the Magna Carta.  The term is “stare decisis”, let the decision stand, all cases with same facts and law should be treated the same. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_law  

2.       Judicial Review is not in the Constitution despite Case Law going back to Marbury vs Madison in 1803.  Statutory law generally over rides case law except when the case law involves a Constitutional precedent such as due process of law, or when the law is arbitrary and capricious. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marbury_v._Madison

3.       The Founders were Demi-Gods whose godly pronouncements have been blasphemed by all Amendments after the 12th (The loser in Presidential Elections would not be VP). In fact, the Founders were brilliant and practical men who had just defeated one of the largest empires in the world, and knew the tragic history of abuses and misuses of political power as evidenced during the course of English history, particularly from the Tudors to the Stuarts with the English Civil Wars in between.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Civil_War

4.       Congress is irremediably corrupt, and should be purged of the politically correct. The essence of a republican form of government (guaranteed in the Constitution) is a legislature.  Anglo-American political systems are built around protecting the legislative function, Federal and State. This goes back to Queen Elizabeth’s barring the bishops during consideration of the Book of Common Prayer, and Cromwell’s purge of Parliament in 1648.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride%27s_Purge

5.       The poor, displaced and unfortunate are a clear and present danger to the successful “doers”.  Denial of basic services is in the best interests of keeping the poor in their places. As in the past, some frustrated lawyer will rise up and arouse the “masses” as they ineptly describe those down on their luck.  

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Marianne, symbol of French Liberty



What is difficult in the case of Conservative Right Wing propaganda is the nature of the Pork of interest to the Right.   In part, the war over Pork is treated as a zero sum game, someone else’s loss is automatically your gain.  It is difficult, however, to see how a collapse of civil and criminal law benefits the Conservative base.  In short, the four points of how to do a coup should not be taken seriously, as such a coup would destroy the one percent even if the downtrodden stayed in their place.

Geography
The Geography Japan, Britain, and the US have idyllic geographical circumstances, the rest of the world usually have borders that can be crossed in force.  Present technology does not provide anyone else the avenues of approach to the US and its key terrain to present a credible invasion threat.

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 Regardless of any terrain or population objective, the defense of the US is defined in law as the defense of the Constitution which can be revised only by three quarters of the State legislatures concurring.  This the geographic control of all but thirteen states (one quarter), frustrates any attempt domestic or foreign to overthrow the United States.

Not long ago, we thought that Global Thermonuclear Warfare was an existential threat to the US.  As such the radioactive remains of our enemies would still have to negotiate the formidable geography of the US.     A rule of thumb based on the last full mobilization of the US in WW2 is that ten percent of the total population wing up in uniform and another forty percent are in defense production.  Right now that would 32,000,000 in uniform using the same factors.  And doable in four years.

The important pork is here, with additional pork necessary to sustain our pork by way of trade. Hence the defense of the nation involves pork export and import capabilities by sea and air, plus whatever land forces are necessary overseas to hold and defend the necessary facilities and locations.  

The Gini Index - Who’s Got the Pork?

The Gini Index measures income inequalities with a simple set of numbers and graphs.  It comes as no big surprise that income inequalities have skyrocketed in the last few decades.  Of revolutionary importance, is the poor people don’t revolt, it is the recently disposed that do.  This was the case of the French after Louis XVI impoverished the nation by supporting the US revolution, plus the failure of the wheat crops.  And in Russia during WW 1, the Russians had been improving their economy after the fashion of Western Europe and the US, but it failed due to incompetent leadership, resulted in more incompetence under the Bolsheviks who denounced free markets and human ingenuity. 

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Where’s the Pork?
People, Pork and Geography

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Sunday, March 27, 2016

Winning the Peace


The Shogan and the Emperor

The Ideal Warfigher is one who fights when necessary to advance the cause of his polity (nation, tribe, family) in ways that support the process of survival.  This is fundamentally, the feeding and breeding of same in ways the nurture and protects the future, children who can cope as in sustained survival of children at puberty at a ratio of 2.1 per couple.  Failure to do so means the polity dies or dies out.
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The Psychological Roles needed for Survival for players pro and con


The operative term is protection as in against those who would destroy the ability of the polity to survive.   This is the psychological aspect of nurturing and protecting against threats, often called villains. The process of protection has defensive and offensive sides one of which is directed at the villains own ability to survive. Hence one man’s hero is another’s villain.
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Victory in any such conflict occurs when both hero and villain benefit from the arrangements post combat.  And believe it so.  The current imbroglio in the Muddled East is largely due to the inability for the combatants to get to a mutually satisfactory post combat arrangement. 
All the firepower, maneuver, and destruction of war that ignores this is a pure waste and a threat to the survival of all combatants to the party.
If you know your enemy and you know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.

 If you know yourself but not the enemy for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.

If you know neither the enemy nor yourself you will succumb in every battle.

Sun Tzu’s advice applies to all walks of life.  Especially in divorce court.

Family Values
Knowing enemies, friendlies or those on the fence depends upon the array of psychological roles and attendant sociological rules that make up the substance of cultural or marker awareness. 
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The Sociological Rules that support the Psychological Roles

For the professional warmonger, T.E. Lawrence’s 27 Articles is a brilliant case study sadly ignored in the late unpleasantness.  Rules such as these change with each culture. 
  1. Go easy for the first few weeks
  2. .Get to know their families, clans and tribes, friends and enemies, wells, hills and roads
  3.   In matters of business deal only with the commander…. of the army.   Never give orders to anyone at all. 
  4.    Win and keep the confidence of your leader
5.       Remain in touch with your leader as constantly and unobtrusively as you can
6.       Be shy of too close relations with the subordinates of the expedition
7.       Treat the sub-chiefs of your force quite easily and lightly
8.       Your ideal position is when you are present and not noticed
9.       Magnify and develop the growing conception of the Sherifs as the natural aristocracy…
10.   Call your Sherif 'Sidi' in public and in private
11.   The foreigner and Christian is not a popular person in Arabia
12.   Cling tight to your sense of humour. You will need it every day.
13.   Never lay hands on an Arab; you degrade yourself.
14.   While very difficult to drive, the Bedu are easy to lead.
15.    Do not try to do too much with your own hands.
16.   A well-placed gift is often most effective in winning over a suspicious sheikh. Never receive a present without giving a liberal return,
17.   Wear an Arab head cloth when with a tribe. Bedu have a malignant prejudice against the hat,
18.    Complete success, which is when the Arabs forget your strangeness and speak naturally before you, counting you as one of themselves,
19.   If you wear Arab things, wear the best
20.   If you wear Arab things at all, go the whole way.
21.   Religious discussions will be frequent. Say what you like about your own side, and avoid criticism of theirs, unless you know that the point is external.
22.   Do not try to trade on what you know of fighting. The Hejaz confounds ordinary tactics
23.   Allusion is more effective than logical exposition: they dislike concise expression
24.   Do not mix Bedu and Syrians, or trained men and tribesmen
25.   Avoid too free talk about women. It is as difficult a subject as religion, and their standards are so unlike our own
26.   Be as careful of your servants as of yourself
27.   Bury yourself in Arab circles, have no interests and no ideas except the work in hand,



























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Lawrence at Aqaba

Psychological Operations.

The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. Sun Tzu

In short, winning wars that stay won requires knowing the right motivation for the right people in the right place with the right kind of power.   In Cold War terms, these are key communicators, as those who had links to people we could not talk to.  A two-step process.  And who were open to selected themes and symbols.  Of special note, these key communicators are those who may or may not hate out guts.
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The Polish Underground in WW2 stopped war production for the Germans for one whole day by issuing a single official looking flyer announcing that all workers could take Hitler’s Birthday, off.  Better than a thousand bomber raid.

All Politics is Local and run by the Construction and Entertainment businesses.
As earth bound creatures, who goes where to do what is implicit in breeding and feeding.  Whether this be a fishing boat, a crib, or in one’s MacMansion in the ‘burbs is the domain of the General Contractor, Building Inspector, Hooker and Pharaoh.   As it is inferred in the Old Testament, Moses was a Building Inspector for the Pharaoh who crossed the General Contractor who got Moses tossed in the mud to make below code bricks (as in without straw). 
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Making Brick with Straw ... Code Compliant

Terrain and trafficability analysis by Moses left the pursuing Pharaoh’s panzers swimming with the fishes. 
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Moses Parts the Sea

All politics is local, and all local politics is about use and not use of the land.   Getting to local brings the best fruit.  All politicians above the local level succor the support of the construction and entertainment industries.  Therein lies the Achilles’ Heels. 
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The Governator

Entertainment. Should one doubt the depth of sincerity herein depicted, it should be noted that Sun Yat Sen’s base of power in China were the Triads, Tongs, and other previously pro-Ming Anti-Machu gambling, prostitution and protection rackets.  Chiang Kai Check’s power base in Shanghai was the Green Gang.
Real Estate. The plantation owners of the Virginia Tidelands dominated US politics until they went South.  When Oil replaced Wool and Cotton, who drilled where and when runs deep in the political bedrock.  A necessary precursor to oil is the steel industry.   The present conflicts in the Ukraine are over the Soviet built Don Bass Iron and Coal triangle.  We call this industrial real estate. 
Highways and Byways, Rivers and Ridges
Commerce and war move along those routes where the going is easiest which normally includes rivers, high ground, and low ground approaches and restricted where high ground intersects such as passes, and cross corridors.  Generally speaking, towns will grow on the opposite side of a barrier, such as a mountain pass, river and big thickets.  This can be represented by a pair of hands:
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Movement is best with the grain, opposed across

Whether by commerce, piracy, governance or war, the control of key pieces of ground by one or another goes to three levels of significance: Strategic, Operational, and/or Tactical.  This applies to marketing grapefruit as well as firepower:
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Forking, the Indirect Approach.
Liddell Hart, in reaction to the carnage of WW 2, advocated the Indirect Approach, in which the enemy was placed on the horns of a dilemma, trying to cover more courses of action than could be handled:
From Liddell Hart. "In Strategy the longest way around is often the shortest way there. A direct approach to the object exhausts the attacker and hardens the resistance by compression, where as an indirect approach loosens the defender's hold by upsetting his balance".[1]
From Sun Tzu: "In all fighting, the direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods will be needed in order to secure victory. In battle, there are not more than two methods of attack – the direct and the indirect; yet these two in combination give rise to an endless series of maneuvers. The direct and the indirect lead on to each other in turn. It is like moving in a circle – you never come to an end. Who can exhaust the possibilities of their combination?"[2]
The Force
There are two kinds of warriors: Farmers and Hunters.  No combat ready force passes an inspection, and many inspection ready forces are doomed.  Farmers need directions, hunters need an incentive.
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German Dead in Russia

The Chain of Command is no stronger than its weakest links.  Nor can it stand alone on the bottom link. Nor can it be separated from the whole of the endeavor. Train from the top down, not the bottom up. The smallest parts only work in the sense of the larger whole; the squad works in the context of battles by four levels up, no less.
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Peace on Earth

All living creatures carry battle drill in the genes, often first shown as play.  Hide and Seek is an evasion drill as are hiding in dark or high places. “ Keep Away” is about being the dinner or the diner.  “Ring around the rosey” is about the Black Death.
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Keep Away

Battles are won or lost in context of the whole sensory environment; sights, sounds, smells, taste and touch.  Of these, smell is the oldest and bypasses all others to the brain. 
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Full Sensory Context of Battle

While once not too many centuries ago, technological change was slow, often centuries in the making. Now it is in the blink of an eye.  Knowing the range of shifting options of the Tactical Imperatives is critical in lasting until lunch.  These are extensions of the parts of the body in four modes which ricochet to create a kaleidoscope of options.
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Faster than the blink of an eye

Despite the best efforts of your best, it is best to get the best deal for the standing. 
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Home Again, Home Again



Hic finitur Lectio

Friday, October 23, 2015

Reconstitution of the US Army

Reconstitution of the US Army

Once upon a time when the Third Reich was young, an enterprising journalist published the complete Order of Battle and mobilization plans for the Wehrmacht.  Himmler had him kidnapped and interrogated as to leads and sources.  His answer was open source, from local papers citing who was being assigned where.  He was warned and let loose



The same use of open sources (OSINT) is available on LinkedIn.  The individual profiles of the members who have a direct or indirect connection with the Services, particularly the US Army show that the Army is in the process of reconstituting its forces to face a new revised and more dangerous array of threats.  Far from the rotational mini-brigade expeditionary model, the new models is restoring the Theater, Corps and full divisions to full capacity.
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Projected penetration of Soviet Forces as a model of high speed mechanized warfare

In addition, references in discussions show that the field artillery and air support are being reunited, and the logistics reconstituted under the command of the commander’s intent rather than an acquisition manager’s contract.  The sources are links to a new family of DOD doctrinal publications.

Assignment Algorithms

Some of that which points to this reconstitution is indicated by the assignment of officers to “targeting” and logistics assignments at corps and higher.  This restores what was once called the Air Ground Operations Center at the old Corps and suggests that a restoration of COSCOM and DISCOM may be under way.  There are many references of officers and enlisted to I, III, and XVIII Corps when up until now did not exist, even called defunct, on Wikipedia.  The repeated reference to Theater suggests that the _COM (CENTCOM, etc.) may be replaced by the new Theaters (XXXXX). 

The type of war fighting done right


That a major reconstitution program, normal at any military level after a battle, is not being accompanied by marching bands, cheer leaders, and sonorous intonations from the pompous and egregious is significant.  The most likely outcome is that these new Theaters will be aligned to a specific piece of the world.  That raises the questions of how will the order of battle for these new corps and theaters be constituted.

The Capstone Mission

That which tied unit cohesion to combat mission prior to Transformation was the link between units of all components of the Services and Components into what were called “Capstone Missions” and “Capstone alignments” that brought myself as a battalion commander in contact with the Canadians on my left flank in NORTHAG near where two Roman legions were slaughtered….the Teutoberger Wald. The Capstone program was the result of a Congressional mandate that insisted that each and every unit must have real world mission in order to be funded.  I was at the Congressional House Senate Conference Committee when it was agreed upon.

The Capstone program tying battalions like mine to places in Germany was sabotaged, and a new order of nonsense was sent in harm’s way.  This is what is being fixed.

Un-dropped Shoes (organization and training)

As such several un-dropped shoes remain.  The reality of major commands expected to move or stay in one piece calls for a deletion or elimination of rotational assignments and training. The cost in the degradation of mid and senior level tactical competence in the most recent unpleasantness due to the repression of the chain of command from three stars to three stripes under Transformation and ARFORGEN must be addressed.

The biggest shift in staffing a large force from existing subordinate elements excludes rotations of units, and reinstitutes more individual replacements along with a system to do so.  The individual rotation programs of all wars up to and including Vietnam was costly in terms of the FNG getting killed too quickly which increased the need for more FNG’s (Funny New Guy).  The existing members of the FNG’s unit do not like to befriend one who is about to die, until he has not. Thus the skills of the Good Old Boys are not passed on to the FNG which increased the mortality rate.

As close as one can get without being thre

The one stellar thing attributable to the rotational modular brigade was and is extraordinary unit morale, which after a decade of rotations, is still high.  A balance between the casualty rates, low in this war, must be developed to retain unit identity to enhance cohesion.  The draftee conscript army only works on home turf or next door, otherwise cohesion suffers.  The US Army at the end of the Vietnam War was one step away from mutiny.  The classic work on the Disintegration and Cohesion of the Wehrmacht showed that as long as the primary group is intact, and a sense of identity with the homeland was maintained, no amount of inducement by propaganda worked.

 
The Eastern Front

The German Army in WW 2 used replacements from the same part of Germany to units also raised from there.  Thus the FNG factor was reduced.  Similar efforts have been done in the British Army through their regimental system which the regiment is the base from where units and personnel were deployed and to where they returned.

One way to restore cohesion is to base replacements through training establishments aligned with specific units and specific areas, like regional or states. The application of All Source Training which includes a training establishment that uses the Chain of Command in each and all training exercises.  Those units and activities can be geographically close to the unit base, or be able to move to the unit.

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The one on the left, then, was when I took the picture in Vietnam
That which is not physically present in the task organization up two and down two and sideways, must be represented or replicated.   That includes units on the flanks, sides and in support.  

The hardest part of training army tactical units is the absence of things that go boom anytime of the day or night, as in field artillery and air support, and in the open.  And done off post as well as on.  Perhaps some form of noisy drone system could provide the audio visual once “shot out” is shouted out.  

An All Source Training establishment would rely on visual reality in a major way. It could establish local training centers where a wandering reserve or Guard officer, could plug into an ongoing “war” as a “replacement”. 

An All Source training establishment would focus on the echelon of command (Corps, Division, Brigade, etc) not the branch or specialty (as is planned today).  Individual and collective training must be done in context of all the other players or participants being there.

The 75th Training Command Model

The model for echelon of command level focused training is based on the model used for decades at the 75th Maneuver Area Command (now the 75th Training Command) based on my experience there in the golden days of yesteryear (1979-1983) when command post exercises were the domain of “battle boards” of acetate, green tape and grease pencil. Communications was by wire.  This process was automated about the time I moved on with Battle and from their website:

“The 75th Training Command prepares large military units for deployments and other missions, by conducting live and virtual scenario-based training, while mentoring senior leaders on effective organizational decision-making….the Training Command now offers virtual and gaming formats. Whether stateside or deployed to a combat zone, military commanders do not lead their units in a vacuum.
 Each commander carefully selects, mentors and oversees a team of supporting staff that manages critical areas including personnel, logistics and operations.
 A commander's ability to keep the troops safe and accomplish the mission is directly related to the professionalism, competence, and teamwork of those staff leaders.
 And while the 75th has predominantly supported Army units in the past, the command now provides similar high quality training to other military branches, non-military agencies, and partner nation military forces.”

Those in the 75th have historically been savvier about higher echelon operations than the Combined Arms Center at Ft Leavenworth and logistics than Ft Lee. This is due simply to the extended and repeated use of “All Source” inputs and outputs in the form, format, and content of information from outside the unit.  Those giving the exercises gain more than the exercised.  This also was an excellent resource for the development of real world mission awareness.


The fly in the soup is the old concept of micromanagement from on high of the details of individual and small unit training including what is called Military Occupation Specialty (MOS) which is used to build empires on high ground and sap the purity and essence of unit combat readiness.  If MOS training is that important to Personnel on High, it should be separately funded from unit readiness. 

7
Taken in 1924
The Tactical Shape Shifters

These are transitional times in which the old and the new intermix. There is nothing new under the sun, but a lot of weird stuff keeps cropping up. The factors of METT-TC with a minor adjustment (adding technology to one of the “t” and replacing the C with Culture), remain constant over time, except technology and its effects on the rest.  The largest change in the tactical milieu in the last 4,000 years is the effect of the bullet and fragment storm that broke first in the Crimean War and came to fruition in Flanders in WW 1.




The same alternatives exist historically when technology affects the means of mayhem, hence the Tactical Imperative and the Tactical Milieu that are the shape shifters.