Posted on 08/18/2005 6:06:22 PM PDT by Yasotay
I am a military history major graduate from the United States Military Academy. The intent of this post is to take another brief look at the current conduct of war, in August 2005, by using the “Principles of War”. I am not on active duty, nor do I have access to any classified information pertaining to this war. Violating some principles of war does not mean we will lose this war, but these violations are NOT helping America win this war.
The first principle discussed is “Offensive. The United States has been on the defensive for over two years. It is time to go back on the Offensive. We need to overthrow the government of the second ‘Axis of Evil’, Iran. If needed, we also need to overthrow the Syrian government. President Bush in a speech at Fort Bragg stated that we need to stay on the offense. I say we need to go back on the offensive.
The next Principle of War that I will now discuss is “Unity of Command”. This principle was being violated for the first 2 years of the War on Terror. I am sure having the Commander of CENTCOM being bypassed and using SOCOM, created many problems. Bremer and the CPA is another example. At least those two problems have been fixed.
The third Principle of War to be looked at is “Objective”. Every military operation should have a clearly defined, decisive and attainable objective. The ultimate military objective of war is the defeat of the enemy’s armed forces. I no longer believe that this is a War on Terror. This is the first war fought over the control, ownership and use of nuclear weapons. The primary threat to the US is a nuclear attack. We have already been attacked with biological agents. While it took the US only 3 ½ years to develop nuclear weapons, Iran and terrorists have been trying to buy, steal or develop nuclear weapons for over twenty years. We must expect that they will (or have) seceded. Therefore, one of our primary objectives has to be the continued denial or destruction of our enemies’ nuclear weapons.
The fourth is “Mass”. The main effort is where your combat power is concentrated at the critical point and time to achieve decisive results. I hope this becomes Iran.
The fifth is “Economy of Force”. Afghanistan has been a great EoF mission. There may not be a better example in all of history. I hope that Iraq also becomes an EOF mission rather then the ‘Main Effort’.
The sixth is “Simplicity”. With everyone saying that this is going to be a long and complex campaign, I wonder what has happened to the basic principle of “KISS”.
Number seven is “Surprise”. While the terrorists used strategic surprise on September 11th, the enemy has appeared to have gone into extended hiding. When they stand and confront us, they die. They clearly will continue to be able to gain tactical surprise. While US forces never had strategic surprise, we have always been blessed with being able to gain operational or tactical surprise. I hope we continue to do well in that arena. The first use of nuclear weapons clearly will be a surprise. I hope we are ready.
Eight is “Security”. It appears that our combat forces are continuing to take enough measures to protect our combat power from observation, sabotage, annoyance, surprise, the press and hopefully espionage. I do not want to write anything else that may compromise that principle.
Last, but not least is “Maneuver”. I would think battalion and brigade heavy task force(s) with special forces (not UofAs) based in Iraq and Afghanistan could support operations inside of Iran. Tom Clancy may have to write a new novel.
In conclusion, I hope that I am wrong in my observations about the principles of war that were being violated. Something that Americans have always been better at then any of our enemies is learning from our errors, correcting our mistakes and driving on to victory. Let hope THAT history repeats itself.
Really sad and all too true. To poorly paraphrase Patton. We have exactly the weapon (US Military) posed in exactly the right position (Iraq and Afghanistan) to achieve a victory unlike any in modern History. It is a chance that comes only once in every thousand years and we lack the will to seize it. Yet another dreg from that bitter cup Kennedy and Johnson brewed up for us in Vietnam.
Actually I'm Jomini type of guy not Clausewitz. If you understand that then you know that I do understand .....
I wonder if we could come up with something that would just target liberals?
Would that be Rush Limbaugh?
From your mouth to Gods ears. But I have faith in GW. Everyone I talk to who has met him says he is very different from his father. For all the criticism it gets him, his Christan faith gives him strength of character his father doesn't have. So whenever the "News" of the day starts to get me down, I just remind myself.
George W Bush is President until Jan 2009 no matter WHAT the Moveon.org types do
There was a reason the Chemical Branch always scared me .....
Liberals are killed by natural scourges such as AIDS and cocaine. No need to target them.
Please God let this be true.
Actually he only informs us, you can't really insult a liberal because the truth is over their heads. No I think something more permanent would be best.
Plus same sex marriage stops them from reproducing.
Yep. I do. I guess I will move on since this seems to be a blue on blue incident. :-}
That is precisely my point.
There is no need to destroy the Iranian Armed Forces. We need only destroy the radical mullahs.
But this guy is educated. The masses in Iran are not and are easy to control. Look how the liberals in this country can be controlled by misinformation from the left.
I hold the USDOD's def. War is a clash of wills.
Many of the other points are taken with the "Threads of Continuity" that I listed in post 10. Many of the professors at West Point consider them more important then the "Principles". I like the 'Principles'. There is no question about the mullahs. They have been growing since 1979 and have to be stopped. BTW, there was a great DoD video/audio that I saw when I was in service, about the Khadafi raid, where the actually plane that bombed him upon weapons release you could hear the audio say: "Knock- Knock Motherf...er".
That explains me being divorced twice, I lost both wars and didn't get any foreign aid out of either one of them.
This is why we need a government run Voice of America in this country for civilians to see movies like this. America sure as hell does not get the truth from the news media.
ping
I thought the embedded reporters were a great idea .... that helped get the truth out ... that clip was only about 1 minute long .... we need something to counter the lies of the MSM.
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