Hybrid Warfare (merged thread)

**goesh** · 08-03-2009

- it went 'hybrid' when the first Neanderthal man was dropped at 40' by a Cro-Magnon man using at atlatl. The Neanderthal crew saw him lying on the ground, his club and short, burnt-end wooden stabbing spear beside him and they ran like hell back to their cave and thus began the interplay of mind, matter and weaponry and it's been mutual adoption and adaptation ever since....

**slapout9** · 08-03-2009

Originally Posted by goesh

- it went 'hybrid' when the first Neanderthal man was dropped at 40' by a Cro-Magnon man using at atlatl. The Neanderthal crew saw him lying on the ground, his club and short, burnt-end wooden stabbing spear beside him and they ran like hell back to their cave and thus began the interplay of mind, matter and weaponry and it's been mutual adoption and adaptation ever since....

Yea, and they were wearing those Man thongy things to....that is where tu tu comes from isn't it

**goesh** · 08-03-2009

You betcha' slap and it gave us the ol' zip gun too - somwhere in your Dept.s evidence room there are probably one or two stashed somehwere covered in dust. From flint-tipped 'hellfire' missles of 10,000 BC to our platforms of today, its almost moot to regard the concept of "hybrid" as something modern but that's just one man's opinion. I see a pattern change though that is distinct, mainly the quality of civilian input and direct involvement in military affairs in some very non-traditional ways, hence my previous qualifier of "almost moot" - now a camo tu tu would be a hybrid in my opinion.

**Ken White** · 08-03-2009

And, yeah, it sure looks hybrid...

LINK

**jmm99** · 08-03-2009

after some thought, that the camo tutu is "kinda cute"; but that it just isn't me - damme.

More seriously, this seems astute:

goesh
I see a pattern change though that is distinct, mainly the quality of civilian input and direct involvement in military affairs in some very non-traditional ways, hence my previous qualifier of "almost moot"

The mix of civilian and military has raised and will raise some complex legal issues. I don't have a name for what we should call that area legally, but it goes beyond the traditional laws of armed conflict.

Getting down to the very basics, LOAC looks to:

1. Is there an armed conflict ?

2. What is the status of the conflicting "powers" (state or non-state) ?

3. What is the status of the individuals in the area of armed conflict (basically, regular combatant, irregular combatant and civilian) ?

So, what is the status of a soldier who is doing what is normally a civilian task ? And, what is the status of a civilian who is very much integrated into the military structure, but is performing what is normally a civilian task ?

It is one thing to have the Marine Corps and Peace Corps with a bright line separation between the two. But what happens legally when you mix them (a camo tutu in effect) ?

More questions than answers, I'm afraid.

**selil** · 08-03-2009

Originally Posted by goesh

- it went 'hybrid' when the first Neanderthal man was dropped at 40' by a Cro-Magnon man using at atlatl. The Neanderthal crew saw him lying on the ground, his club and short, burnt-end wooden stabbing spear beside him and they ran like hell back to their cave and thus began the interplay of mind, matter and weaponry and it's been mutual adoption and adaptation ever since....

Having extensively used an Atlatl and being capable of drilling a thumb sized target at 50 meters with one. I would tell you if I was throwing, my spear at 40 feet it would go through the first neanderthal, the next, and likely the next.

The Atlatl is the artillery of early mankind.

Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

**goesh** · 08-04-2009

"The mix of civilian and military has raised and will raise some complex legal issues. I don't have a name for what we should call that area legally, but it goes beyond the traditional laws of armed conflict." JMM99

Well, the saving grace is military discipline, several hundred years of metered and measured response, sadly tempered with extreme sacrifice for it to ever get truly out of hand and civilians be dominating the show. I thought the lads were maybe getting soft, coming from my history of DIs being able to beat the living sh** out of boots and I wondered about high techery when a green towel around the neck in the bush in 'Nam was a wonderous thing to have but I've seen 'em and what they've done in two theatres of war and the complications of new legal burdens has not hindered our capability, commitment or professional standards and I ain't being a cheer leader here, its common observation. From Mai Lai to Abu Ghraib, discipline keeps the right and wrong decisions in check and balance and that is basis of any collective evolution. From a conventional or a COIN perspective, once US citizens are in harms way on foreign land in armed conflict, the judgement of Commanders and senior NCOs on the ground will still carry the most sway when the final verdicts come in, regardless of this new nuance of civlian input and impact.
Selil - any man that could spear 2 Neanderthals with one throw can wear a tu tu if he wants and I won't say a darn word about it, Ken might, but he is tougher than me.