Posted on 11/11/2002 4:54:41 PM PST by Yasotay
This summer President Bush addressed the graduating Class of West Point on it’s Bi-Centennial. In very clear terms, the Class of 2002 was told that the US is at war. While we are being told that this war will be unlike any before it, the basic principles of war do not change. On this Veterans’ Day there is a very high probability that very shortly, we will be involved in a war and maybe a World War. The purpose of this short paper is to look at and examine the “Principles of War” and the “Threads of Continuity” as taught at West Point. The Principles are: Objective, Offensive, Mass, Economy of Force, Maneuver, Unity of Command, Security, Surprise and Simplicity. The Threads are both Internal and External. The Internal Threads are Military Professionalism, Tactics, Strategy, Logistics and Administration, Military Theory and Doctrine, and Generalship. The External Threads are Political, Social, Economic Factors and Technology.
We have been told the enemy is terrorists and the “Axis of Evil” (Iraq, Iran and North Korea). Our objective with some of the terrorists is clear, kill them. But terrorists have seen that terrorism has worked in accomplishing many of their goals. My question is simple: What is the OBJECTIVE with Iran and North Korea?
There appears little doubt that we are using or will use well the Principles of Offensive, Mass, Economy of Force, Maneuver and Security. While strategic “Surprise” was lost on September 11th, 2001, the United States as always has been good (and lucky) at tactical and operational surprise. I expect that to continue. My concerns are with Simplicity and Unity of Command. I hope that there is only one commander, unlike what has been reported that Intelligence and SOCOM report to and are controlled separately. As for Simplicity, “KISS” rules. Desert Storm was simple. Let’s hope that the people in charge don’t get too weird.
The Internal Threads all also are favoring the United States. The only advantage that the enemy has (and it is a HUGE advantage) is interior lines of logistics. That advantage, if used well by the enemy could easily destroy us.
As for the External Threads, here are all the wild cards. I am not going to “what if” these to death, but this is where the United States can and in some areas is losing big. The biggest area that we are losing is the Economic Factors. I saw, in Berlin what won the Cold War, and while I would like to say it was the US Army, it was very clear that it was the US Economy. Since then, we have taken the greatest economy that the world has ever seen and converted it from a manufacturing based economy to a service based economy (A huge mistake). I thought that we would reverse that since 9/11, but we have not. The United States needs to reverse course and become a manufacturing based economy again. If this war continues, or if we are attacked with NBC weapons we lose.
At West Point, I learned that the Principles of Wars (and the Threads of Continuity) are valid. In Berlin, I learned not to predict the future (I thought we were headed for WWIII). Somewhere (I hope), someone (in charge), has objectively looked at our strengths and weaknesses and minimized the weaknesses and maximized our strengths.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.