Posted on 05/04/2003 6:25:31 PM PDT by calebcar
I recently read and recommend Boyd: The Fighter Pilot who changed the Art of War. by Robert Coran. It is about John Boyd, the man probably most responsible in the change in American fighting from Viet Nam to Gulf II.
I won’t go into detail but he emphasizes four factors: initiative, flexibility, harmony and speed. This is opposed to what he calls “Hey diddle diddle, straight down the middle (an example being Normandy).” The essential goal is to get inside the opponents thinking so as to cause confusion and ambivalence. Think of a fighter pilot who knows what his adversary id going to do before he does it, The adversary sees this happen a couple of times and gets paralyzed.
I think Boyd’s thinking is ingrained in the Bush administration. Coran described Dick Cheney when he was Secretary of State in the Gulf Was meeting regularly with Boyd. He says he overrode Schwartzkoff (sp?) in creating military strategy based on Boyd’s ideas. Boyd also fought continuously for more nimble military hardware. He thought that lots of high tech stuff cost too much in weight, fuel, and other trade offs. He was therefore fighting Pentagon brass and politicians who viewed procurement as pork and fancy toys. His thinking mirrors Donald Rusted in his recent battles with General White and others.
Not only is the Bush administration conversant with these ideas and have a leader with the intelligence to use them but they also have what I think is an insurmountable advantage in implementing them. Maneuver warfare-with the need for immediate decision-making requires delegating responsibility downward. This requires tremendous trust. People need to work together for a long time, know their mission, believe in their mission and have the same agenda. For many reasons I think Bush is much better able to create a team with these characteristics than any adversary.
I still have nightmares of the Clinton years. But I honestly think the advantages listed above will be very decisive in 2004.
I think one of the reasons the American military has been so successful throughout its history are that the American form of government is condusive to the culture necessary to enact Boyd’s principals. A link which shows this is Citizen Soldier on the U.S.S. Clueless website by Steven Den Beste http://denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2002/08/CitizenSoldier.shtml
All of which you can thank Reagan. You can thank Clinton for the economy we have right now.
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