He ups his surveillance of the FOB which was always in place in order to understand us and our movements and notices that something had been added to the gun trucks. Many times good intentions morph into concepts that are meant to communicate vision, but instead drive questionable acquisition and funding strategies. We must introduce at least our SOF soldiers to the concepts of the critical realist[i] philosophy and to the practice of forming multi-paradigmatic views. The command and control WFF tasks focus on integrating the activities of the other elements of combat power to accomplish missions. The warfighting functions are the physical means that tactical commanders use to execute operations and accomplish missions assigned by superior tactical- and operational-level commanders. Not to compare the two leaders, but you could say the same thing about Hitler's bombing of London. The rationale being the MIE multiplier might provide more of an insight into the dynamics of the conflict ecosystem than the digitally driven lens we are currently enslaved to. The U.S. military has become more professional, more centrally-managed, more technologically-enhanced, and more regimented since the ramp-up for the Cold War saddled the American people with a relatively large professional force. Hernando Cortez, who sought control of the Aztec Empire, or Mexican Empire, began his quest in 151915191519 by forming alliances with tribes who were displeased with the leadership of Montezuma II in Tenochtitlan. It had only a marginal military impact but that was not his intent. And it does in fact represent a number of UW deployments by ODAs in th 60/70s. (See below). IMO the failure to understand the simple basics of the fighting culture or fighting motive-sets of our opponents undermines every aspect of our effort in Afghanistan. Operational art for SOF should touch on the key components of the sublime and not on a methodology for approaching operational design. Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active. "Yet no matter how much we may focus on the diversity of opinions, customs, attitudes and interests within each community, in the end it is not the diversity that defines the conflict but the conflict that defines social attitudes that are widely shared.". Protection. The sublime for Curtis White is about art. Mission command should cascade down the ranks through the NCOs to the formations at large. I am again going to shy away from your basic argument even though I agree with you. Which of the following is the world's largest single trading entity? Warfighting Functions: The seven mutually supporting military activities integrated in the conduct of all military operations. What do you think about the Army Warfighting Functions? that are part and parcel to these such state and societal breakdown and rebuilding initiatives? Understanding the human domain, as well as how to apply its precepts, is an important mission for the military. [xx] The U.S. military and SOF used to do this naturally prior to the Cold War by drastically drawing down the Army and doing away with SOF altogether after a war. 25: More Chinese Ferry Tales: China's Use of Civilian Shipping in Military Activities, 2021-2022, Hospital Ships: A Vital Asset for SOUTHCOM and South American Navies, The Goshen Massacre and the Specter of Cartel Spillover Into the US, Dangerous Alliances: Russias Strategic Inroads in Latin America, Year Ahead Emerging Technologies and the Collection of Battlefield Evidence, How Does Matter Matter In International Conflict and Security? In order for SOF to best contribute to operations within the human domain I assert that we have to do two things: 1) ensure our doctrine and concepts support a more nuanced and dynamic approach to operations at the conceptual level and, 2) mimic at the operational and strategic levels the same kinds of things that make us special at the tactical level. 5. The identification of the need for this information and subsequently coordinating its collection is therefore a part of the Int WFF. Plus, there has been less friendly fire incidents. The Maya, who developed an astrological calendar that allowed them to grow crops in poor soil, were originally thought to be a peaceful people, but archaeologists have since determined that intertribal warfare brought about their decline. Human domains, or narratives, or strategic contexts, or ecosystems, or understanding situations, must, of necessity, begin with the self. Linear logic and metrics are required to justify and validate requirements; narrative and anecdote are abhorred by the bureaucracy. Originally a nomadic society inhabiting the central basin of antediluvian Mexico, the various tribes who identified 252525 themselves as Aztec settled in the marshy region near Lake Texcoco and, in 132513251325, founded the city of Tenochtitlan at the present site of Mexico City. Today is the hour for citizen self-management. where there is no, as yet, defined and identifiable enemy. That globalization is adding echelons of wealth concentration doesn't necessarily mean something "new" is happening. Or to use the language of the military, your own assumptions. b. [xiv] In short, the U.S. Army as an institution is convinced that it was not population-centric enough in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and thus influencing the local population has to be a critical lesson, if not THE lesson we should take from our recent forays overseas. how much does a company pay for h1b visa. I don't mean to sound cryptic but I don't want to open up a can of worms now when I plan to do some fishing later. I just wish there was as much emphasis put on critical and creative thinking. As Grant opened up the question of SW/UW vs the Special Action side and would suggest that Mexico become the training scenario for SW/UW. monitor than our adversaries, those staff guys watching the screens have little understanding of the operational environment because most of them have no personal interaction with the environment outside of viewing it on their monitor, or adversaries have greater battlefield knowledge and understanding of all the systems that interact in it. The purpose of the Fires WFF is to engage threat elements with lethal and less-lethal joint fires and effects, usually in coordination with manoeuvring ground forces (M2 WFF). Your email address will not be published. The distinction you explicitly make seems to detract from your deeper point. If two things dont alert us to the possibility that there could be something fundamentally wrong, then possibly nothing will. I also don't see how managing humans, be you occupying them or sharing some skills, is a uniquely UW/SW activity. I also agree with your thoughts on how we misunderstand our enemy. Human populations, however, are characterized by different viewpoints and limiting oneself to only one view of the world can be disastrous if trying to make sense of things and initiate a desired effect. The related tasks and systems that move and employ forces to achieve a position of relative advantage over the enemy and other threats. Knowingly or not, we in the military are governed largely by a system of systems that theoretically ties the Presidents security strategy to everything the military does, from the way the Army organizes into brigades to the type of rifle infantrymen carry. Agree with you that a deeper problem (THE problem?) Shortly after noon and simultaneously, the community police of Tanctaro, Buena Vista, Aguililla, Tepalcatepec and La Ruana liberated the municipalities of El Zapote, El Corrijo and Rancho Grande, where 18 villages coexist with about 500 inhabitants, just like Acahuato, in the municipality of Apatzingn. You followed "your" American military pattern as you always had, without realizing it was your pattern. -- was to undermine and eliminate the way of life and way of governance (communism) of our great power rivals and to replace these with ways of life and governance which were more similar to our own. The purpose of CIMIC is to coordinate with and support the various non-military elements of the operating environment. It is comparative to threat elements therefore includes actions to reduce the enemys freedom of manoeuvre. Well done. What I don't like is the idea that as long as it is hard we should not try and simply leave it to others to figure out. c. If the conservative/anti-western reform elements are in power, then you are probably embarked upon war to convince, coerce, compel or overthrow this unfriendly/uncooperative government -- who is resisting western change -- and to replace this government with one that will pursue our political objective (outlined above). [xxxviii] USDA, Special Operations, ADP 3-05, 2012, 8. Critical realism can be used to describe current or past situations. Unfortunately our schoolhouse is beholden to metrics and check-the-block assessments. It means preserving the force which includes personnel and physical assets of the United States as well as the host nation and any military or civilian allies. It always struck me a little odd in a way because it was the first time in our history where anyone literally could come in off a mission and then sit down on a computer and talk with your wife, parents, friends etc. B130876 Warfighting 7 Basic Officer Course . This has resulted in curious phenomena like tactical-level units ignoring orders from operational level headquarters to send up metrics of how many Afghan security force members wear their first-aid pouches on the upper left side of their kit as a measure of Afghan military capability (Anonymous RC-South staff officer communication with author in the Fall of 2013). These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. The joint functions, then, were never intended to be another level of organiza-tion. Win friends and influence people? So while our enemy understands us, I believe that we have a hard time understanding them insofar as we dont know how to defeat them. These cookies do not store any personal information. We in the military, in my opinion, follow the Behavioralist school of political theory as an institution- quite consciously, are unconscious Positivists in philosophical outlook- both individually and institutionally, and yet we pretend to be Rational Choice Theorists. I think to a certain extent things are still not too bad at the team level. Therefore many in SOF will call a Special Forces (SF) Group a tactical level organization. If war is the pursuit of one's political objective by other means, then soldiers and statesmen -- long before the enemy -- must know, acknowledge, plan and prepare specifically as relates to this political objective. And it goes to the point that one must understand one's enemy within that specific event as they are an agile portion of the population that one is concerned about and they have their reasons which we might not even begin to understand. The Aztecs, noted perhaps most often for their penchant for battle and human sacrifice, composed the second-largest pre-Columbian civilization in central America. After doing some research online, here is the best definition I could find. When someone asked him a difficult question, Walt _____ because he did not know the answer. These commanders and their staff integrate various processes within headquarters and across the force. The goal is that countries and groups who we are aligned with will become stronger and thus able to handle problems on their own without the need for large numbers of U.S. troops, which arguably get in the way of long-term progress anyway. Just using the comment below sets the stage for a massive exercise in critical thinking and team discussions that do not fit the standard Powerpoint MDMP presentation. .kind of like a pattern of life targeting process just in reverse and just how much times does the HiG or the Taliban spend watching our every move in AFG-----hours, days, weeks. To add to those types of missions I would include any military operation in which either the objectives are very unclear and abstract or the operation is structured in such a way as to have a high likelihood of being unbounded in scope and time. They could learn nothing at all about what the people in a platoon outpost are likely to do by looking at small town America. Lastly, all of these capabilities would be used to develop an innovative approach to complex problems, those problems that are inherent when the military attempts social change. The seven warfighting functions are command and control, fires, force protection, information, intelligence, logistics, and maneuver. I think as well that the difference between the 60s and now is the length of rotations---we had a year to gain experience---AND the replacement process was individual replacements not team replacements--this allowed a sizeable amount of institutional knowledge to remain inside the team all the time---now whole teams come and go thus the institutional knowledge disappears if not passed on extremely well during RIP/TOA. Administrative movement (generally movement via strategic transport) is included in the Sustainment WFF. If we would have "understood" the Iraqi insurgency we actually would have seen the strategy being used vs only the symptoms ie the battle field tactics. They have become too skillful at techniques of selective inattention, junk categories, and situational control techniques, which they use to preserve constancy of their knowledge-in-practice. For example, on the one hand the methodology implores professionals to critically think, but it then defines the specific ways in which one must think about war, a wholly uncritical approach. Listed below are the main points from those ideas. B. WFF are the physical means that tactical commanders use to execute operations and accomplish missions assigned by a superior commander. IMHO in UW unless we champion the critically of the M1E and recognize the limitations of digitization in our planning process we dont have a prayer. Those who survived were forced to abandon their customs and live beneath Spanish rule for the next three centuries. In Evaluating Immunities before a Special Tribunal for Aggression Against Ukraine, the Type of Tribunal Matters, Chinas Ferry Tale Taiwan Invasion Plan Is A Legal Nightmare, China Maritime Report No. This next comment sums it up; We largely did that with Stability Operations turning it over to other agencies and NGO's who claim that they understand this stuff better. This conundrum was fixed by the Army at Fort Leavenworth by forcing the concepts of design, an anti-methodological approach, into a methodology! [v] White, Curtis, The Middle Mind: Why Americans Dont Think For Themselves, HarperOne, 2004, 7. The people who want to join the Civilian Defense movement are within their rights. As all actions (words and deeds) undertaken by the force contribute to the coherent narrative, the IA WFF is used to coordinate the actions of the force to ensure a consistent message is portrayed. So too is the buzzword "ecosystem.". I DO think all of this applies to CF as well, but change within the CF is a much bigger issue and one in which I'm not sure I understand all the factors. Risk can be taken in IT platforms, vehicles, C2 systems, and airframes. In addition to having the most advanced medical and surgical techniques of the ancient Americas, the Inca constructed more than 12,00012,00012,000 miles of roadway and aqueducts to supply taxpaying and labor-contributing tribes throughout the empire.