Thursday 28th of March 2024

the value of experience .....

William Lind has written eloquently and with great knowledge of Fourth Generation War (4GW). 4GW is the preferred tactic of our opposing forces both in Iraq and Afghanistan, just as it was in Vietnam. The United States Military bases its strategy on a theory known as, Victory Through Superior Firepower; simply said, this is bringing concentrated and overwhelming firepower to the point of attack. Our Military Industrial Complex (MIC) mandates this battlefield philosophy. High-tech weapons and weapons systems require trillions of dollars to develop and produce. These trillions of taxpayer dollars line the pockets of those who lobby the government for war. Many of our career politicians rotate between leadership of MIC companies and positions in the government. Career Colonels and Generals find high-paying positions in the MIC when they leave military service. This money-eating merry-go-round is not only bankrupting our country but also systematically leads to the deaths of our soldiers on the 4GW field of battle.

The Victory Through Superior Firepower strategy works when state-led armies meet on the field of battle. Our opposing forces know they cannot compete in this arena, so they employ guerilla tactics (4GW). The tactics and strategy now being employed against our forces in Southwest Asia have never been defeated in the history of this planet. These tactics have previously delivered crushing blows to massive state-sponsored militaries in the past: the US in Vietnam and the former Soviet Union in Afghanistan and recently to Israeli forces in Lebanon. 4GW forces believe they will prevail by employing the "death by a thousand cuts" philosophy. They will gladly sacrifice several soldiers to destroy a Stryker, Bradley or Abrams tank. Soldiers to them are a renewable resource, while the losses of equipment costing millions of dollars cannot be sustained in a prolonged war by aggressor forces. To the forces employing 4GW, victory is not necessarily won on the field of battle.’

The Mother Of All Lies

voices from the ranks .....

‘An extraordinary full-page antiwar ad appeared in the Sunday edition of the New York Times on Nov. 9, 1969. In it, 1,366 active-duty U.S. service members signed a statement calling for an end to the war in Vietnam. The signatures represented a tiny minority of the 3.5 million troops serving on active duty then -- but behind those signatures was a groundswell of dissent inside the military. With the Vietnam adventure sliding into an abyss, that dissent would become more apparent as an Army that included many conscripts faced ugly resistance from within: soldiers disobeying orders, deserting, using drugs, and even "fragging" their own officers with grenades.

Today, there are echoes of the Vietnam experience in the protracted Iraq war -- including a growing protest movement in the military. Its trappings are starkly different this time. Rather than insubordination and violence, it has formed around a form-letter campaign, presumably conducted within the bounds of military regulations that restrict what soldiers are allowed to say. Last week, a group of current troops, with support from a handful of antiwar organizations, announced plans to petition Congress with a collection of "appeals for redress," which call for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. They had 65 signatures from active-duty troops and reservists.’

There's Something Happening Here