January 29, 2003

  • How militarists view the world: the Evolution of Warfare (concise nfp edition)


     


    0d generation warfare:


      The ape fight scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey


     


     


    1st generation warfare: Naploleanic; use of line and column on a linear battlefield; direct fire.


     


    2nd generation warfare: Prussian; still linear but with a heavier reliance on indirect fire; heavy firepower replaces reliance on massed manpower; still practiced by most conventional forces (including US).


     


    3rd generation warfare:  German-blitzkrieg; first truly non-linear tactics; attacks reliy on infiltration to bypass and collapse the enemy's combat forces rather than seeking to close with and destroy them.


     






    4th generation warfare:  likely to be widely dispersed and largely undefined; the distinction between war and peace will be blurred to the vanishing point. It will be nonlinear, possibly to the point of having no definable battlefields or fronts. The distinction between "civilian" and "military" may disappear. Actions will occur concurrently throughout all participants' depth, including their society as a cultural, not just a physical, entity. Major military facilities, such as airfields, fixed communications sites, and large headquarters will become rarities because of their vulnerability; the same may be true of civilian equivalents, such as seats of government, power plants, and industrial sites (including knowledge as well as manufacturing industries). Success will depend heavily on effectiveness in joint operations as lines between responsibility and mission become very blurred. Again, all these elements are present in third generation warfare; fourth generation will merely accentuate them.
    —William S. Lind et al., "The Changing Face of War: Into the Fourth Generation," Military Gazette, October     1989


    I


    In February, the Middle East Media Research Institute published excerpts from an article it found on a now-defunct al-Qaeda Website, Al-Ansar: For the Struggle Against the Crusader War. The article, "Fourth-Generation Wars" by Abu 'Ubeid al-Qurashi, was pseudonymous, but intelligence sources tell Insight that the writer is a figure of significant stature within al-Qaeda and should be taken seriously. He openly acknowledges the 1989 Marine Corps Gazette article (above), embraces the principles advanced therein and says, "This new type of war presents significant difficulties for the Western war machine."

    —Scott L. Wheeler, "Terrorist Tactics for War With the West," Insight on the News,     January 6, 2003


     


    5th generation warfare??  The Animatrix?



    What is the Animatrix ?


     


    What's the alternative to evolving militaristic warfare?  Peace?  No!  Peace is the absence of warfare-not an alternative.  The alternative, when peace eludes mankind, is non-evolving warriorfare :


    A True Warrior, timeless ...

    I have no parents:
    I make the heavens and earth my parents.
    I have no home:
    I make awareness my home.
    I have no life or death:
    I make the tides of breathing my life and death.
    I have no divine power:
    I make honesty my divine power.
    I have no means:
    I make understanding my means.
    I have no magic secrets:
    I make character my magic secret.
    I have no body:
    I make endurance my body.
    I have no eyes:
    I make the flash of lighting my eyes.
    I have no ears:
    I make sensibility my ears.
    I have no limbs:
    I make promptness my limbs.
    I have no strategy:
    I make "unshadowed by thought" my strategy.
    I have no designs:
    I make "seizing opportunity by the forelock" my design.
    I have no miracles:
    I make right action my miracles.
    I have no principles:
    I make adaptability to all circumstances my principle.
    I have no tactics:
    I make emptiness and fullness my tactics.
    I have no talents:
    I make ready wit my talent.
    I have no friends:
    I make my mind my friend.
    I have no enemy:
    I make carelessness my enemy.
    I have no armor:
    I make benevolence and righteousness my armor.
    I have no castle:
    I make immovable mind my castle.
    I have no sword:
    I make absense of self my sword.


    -Anonymous Samurai, Fourteenth Century

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