The Rise and Demise of the "Three Block War"

Canadian Military Journal (A DND/Canadian Forces publication) ^ | 2009-10-15 | A. Walter Dorn and Michael Varey

[Clive]

For ease of formatting, I have omitted the photographs includede in the article.

I have also omitted the footnotes although I have left in the footnote references within the text.

Please refer to the original text for these items.

[Clive]

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[Clive]

I have inadvertently omitted the source of the article and its link. I have asked the administrator to add these items

Meanwhile, here is the hyperlink to the source article:

Canadian Military Journal

[mazda77]

Goes back to the philosophy of KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). The functional purpose of the military is to kill people and break things.

So this Commandant’s reign was during Clinton’s. Who’d a thunk?

[1raider1]

My idea of war is that one force is there to protect the citizens of it’s country and the other force is there to protect it’s citzens. If one of these forces chooses to abandon it’s duty and use the people it is supposed to protect as shields and the people do not revolt and attack these forces then all have rendered themselves combatants and therefore legitmate targets. I realize that some of the shields are forced under threat of death by their countrymen, but if they are doomed either way, better they should perish than our forces. I feel any other system needlessly exposes our troops to danger. “World” sentiment be damned.

[Clive]

Funny, but I just finished an observation on that point in a thread on the closing of a US embassy in Yemen.

My observation is that killing people and smashing things is a method, not the objective.

The main objective in warfare is to impose your nation's will upon its enemy and to frustrate said enemy's desire to impose its will upon your nation.

Kill people and smash things if need be but not necessarily kill people and smash things.

Read Chapter 3 of Sun Tzu, preferably the Huang translation or the treatment by Gen Tao Hanzhang (PLA) as translated by Yuan Shibing, but the Griffith translation and the Cleary translation also make my point sufficiently well for this discussion and they are easier to find.

[Clive]

D'accord.

The Geneva Conventions do not disagree with your perspective, notwithstanding the gloss put upon them by the Western left wing media.

[mazda77]

We agree it is not the objective but physically using the military for anything else is like using a Skillsaw to trim your fingernails. Now, to threaten the use of it to someone who refuses to tidy themselves up is fully within reason to enlighten the willfully beligerant slob.

[RedEyeJack]

The Urban Warrior experiments during 1997-1999 were conducted to address the problems of Military Operation in Urban Terrain to include the issues of the Three Block War. Urban Warrior demonstrated that there were no technological short cuts in urban fighting. The clear lesson was that you had to train in urban areas to be prepared to fight in urban areas (no brainer except our urban training facilities, with few exceptions, in 1998 were “villages”). The end result was a training program for Marine Battalions that ultimately prepared them for the battles in Falluja and later in Ramadi. The three block war concept has led to intense task organization of Marine units to include emphasis on Information Warfare, Psychological Operations (Army supported), Civil Affairs, and even Public Affairs. The “combined-arms” teams that come out of the Mojave Viper training preparations are as prepared as time will allow for both kinetic and non-kinetic operations. This approach helped “turn-the-tide” in Al Anbar. It is being adapted as rapidly as possible to conditions in Afghanistan. We are learning organizations who can find ways to win in all three blocks simultaneously if necessary and so ordered. Kurlak’s vision was NOT simplistic and the Marines and soldiers will not refuse it as “not their job” and will win if they are supported by their military and civilian leadership.

[1raider1]

What’s yer point.

[Ben Ficklin]

The "three block war" is terminology used in counterinsurgency(COIN) similar to clear-hold-build or kinetic-nonkinetic.

Who knows everything there is to know and more about counterinsurgency and its current role in US Military strategy?

The COINdinistas

Although Nagl is listed #2 to Petraeus, since he was the teacher, he is really #1.

If you want to read the nuts and bolts of COIN, follow those links to Small Wars and Abu Muqawama

[ken5050]

Save for reading later..

[DieHard the Hunter]

I don’t think they used fancy ideas like “Three Block War” during WW-II. I wonder if there was a reason for that...

[tanuki]

I actually think that the concept of the three block war is useful to a point. I agree with the authors’ premise, though, that one force can’t perform all three functions. I’ve often thought that expansion of the military police branch towards autonomous units would go a long way towards accomplishing block 2, COIN or peacekeeping operations. In addition, more direct involvement of other agencies, especially AID, CIA and private contractors would be invaluable in both blocks 2 and 3 and maybe even supersede any military role in block 3. Basically, use people who are suited to roles and damn the bureaucratic pigeonholes.

I am wary of their touting of the UN experience in these things. From my perspective, the UN role in peacekeeping has either been minimal (El Salvador), best credited to others (Australia in East Timor) or horrendous (Somalia and Rwanda).

[AndyJackson]

You are trying to make an important point here, and I wish you luck. The neocons who hang around here have no patience for using their brains to try to figure out what we are trying to do in the world. They just want to blow stuff up and kill people. That is why Bush and his crowd are out. Remember, we only got Petraeus in charge of Iraq in the latter years after we had tried everything else.

Using brains is so un-American.

[Squantos]

BTTT. !

[Travis McGee]

Is there some nugget hidden in there?

[dljordan]

“Using brains is so un-American.”

What? :)

[AndyJackson]

Just read your fellow freepers here. The intellectual underpinnings of what is being discussed is serious. But we have a crowd here that just wants to go around blowing stuff up, whatever the purpose.

[dljordan]

“Just read your fellow freepers here. The intellectual underpinnings of what is being discussed is serious. But we have a crowd here that just wants to go around blowing stuff up, whatever the purpose.”

I was making a joke. I get your point.