thread: 2006-03-05 : No, THIS is the perfect medium
On 2006-03-06, Jason M wrote:
A couple of notes - some of the field manuals I didn't link to properly are from 1979 or so and pretty much all of them focus on the last war we envisioned, which was going to take place in central Europe against the Warsaw Pact. So some of the best practices (particularly the MOUT stuff) don't reflect modern reality. Current Lessons learned documents are very interesting and make for some compelling reading.
Much of the combined arms doctrine is being rewritten in light of fourth-generation warfare, in which distributed groups seek to maximize returns by focusing on systems rather than traditional military targets. John Robb's Global Guerillas site is a great and terrifying resource on 4GW.
This makes SF go "4GW - yes and no..."
It's a brilliant theory, except the theorists forget that the first tribe to wipe out a rival village while its warriors were out hunting practiced "4th Generation warfare." The problem with attacking enemy "systems" and bypassing enemy forces is that the enemy forces are paid to get in your way.
This makes JM go "Naw"
I disagree. Targeting civilians is just sound strategic thinking from one POV. The guys "paid to get in the way" in Iraq have a hard time guarding their own perimeter, much less a bazillion miles of pipeline, powerline, water mains.
