Understanding the Enemy

[MikeF]

Mike et al who disdain psyops and civil affiars, mere military power is not and will not by itself work.

First, I don't disdain Psyops. Some of our best work is being done in Africa right now below the radar by small SF and psyops teams. Your statement is simply wrong. Psyops is an enabler not a branch.

We all agree on one hard fact. Muslims are different and we are not about to change the goofy to us moraes and value system (whatever that means) of the enemy that runs across so many fabled, ficional, as well as factual histories of a tribal,ethnic, cultural level as to be like trying to hold your breath while taking an around the world trip.

We is relative. Many feel that there is an American living inside each and every person on this Earth. Maybe there is Just ask Paul Wolfowitz or GW.

Here's what Thomas Jefferson said about it...

"War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong;
and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses."
—Thomas Jefferson, 1810

Right now, I would submit that we are going about things in the most inefficient way possible. In the end, it drives down to money. That concerns me. When I look around to where we've had success, often times I see small groups of advisors working under the radar. What they do is cheap, quiet, and it seems to work.

But, I'm just a tanker that ended up jumping out of airplanes. I'm probably just confused. I did bump my head a lot.

v/r

Mike

[CPT Foley]

Military thinkers are generally very good historians, but they tend to marginalize literature as "just fiction." I think it's also important to study a culture's literature to increase cultural awareness. When I read Fouad Ajami's "Dream Palace of the Arabs" I was struck by his constant references to poets and novelists, e.g., the Syrian exile Adonis (pen name). After reading the poems of Adonis I do feel like I have a better of the alienation of the modern Arab.

[jcustis]

Military thinkers are generally very good historians, but they tend to marginalize literature as "just fiction." I think it's also important to study a culture's literature to increase cultural awareness. When I read Fouad Ajami's "Dream Palace of the Arabs" I was struck by his constant references to poets and novelists, e.g., the Syrian exile Adonis (pen name). After reading the poems of Adonis I do feel like I have a better of the alienation of the modern Arab.

This is an excellent point, and it is being used all the time in Iraq, say by RCT/BCT cmdrs who sit down with the sheiks and uses stories to convey a particular message they need to get across. One commander told the story of the king who had a magical sword over his head as he sat on his throne, where the sword was there to ensure he did right by his people. He was speaking to a local sheik, and trying to get the point across, subtly, that the sheik would be in store for a little pain if he didn't do right and the sword plummeted down.

We don't do as well when it is a mass-produced message though.

[MikeF]

This is an excellent point, and it is being used all the time in Iraq, say by RCT/BCT cmdrs who sit down with the sheiks and uses stories to convey a particular message they need to get across. One commander told the story of the king who had a magical sword over his head as he sat on his throne, where the sword was there to ensure he did right by his people. He was speaking to a local sheik, and trying to get the point across, subtly, that the sheik would be in store for a little pain if he didn't do right and the sword plummeted down.

We don't do as well when it is a mass-produced message though.

Well said, Jcustis. And that actually helped me a lot...I suppose that I was hanging out with the terps too long!!! I started turning everything into a metaphor

v/r

Mike

[jcustis]

Well said, Jcustis. And that actually helped me a lot...I suppose that I was hanging out with the terps too long!!! I started turning everything into a metaphor

v/r

Mike

I think I picked up a similar sensitivity around Somali laborers I routinely guarded during my first OCONUS deploy.

[MikeF]

I think I picked up a similar sensitivity around Somali laborers I routinely guarded during my first OCONUS deploy.

In contrast to bounded rationality....sorry if it makes your brain hurt

We routinely disqualify testimony that would plead for extenuation. That is, we are so persuaded of the rightness of our judgement as to invalidate evidence that does not confirm us in it. Nothing that deserves to be called truth could ever be arrived at by such means.
-Marilynne Robinson, The Death of Adam

There are times when you choose to believe something that would normally be considered absolutely irrational. It doesn't mean that it is actually irrational, but it is surely not rational. Perhaps it is suprarationality: reason beyond the normal definitions of fact or data-based logic; something that makes sense only if you can see a bigger picture of reality. Maybe that is where faith fits in. -Wm. Paul Young, The Shack

People who use (the words) I, my and mine have a greater risk of a heart attack," he said. "My conclusion is a more self-centered attitude makes our minds become more narrow and then even a small, tiny problem becomes unbearable. There are thousands, millions of people facing similar problems. Don't take oneself as the center of the world. Think of others, then your health will become better. That's my medicine. -Dalia Lama at Berkeley this weekend.

As a man in the Recon, paratroopers learn tried and true techniques to counter this fog and friction of life. When traversing through restricted terrain, when facing seemingly impassible obstacles, when the dark of night refuses to shed light, we stop, take a knee, listen to our surroundings, whisper amoungst each other lest the enemy hear us, pull out our map and compass, and determine our position. Then, we determine direction and distance to the next waypoint. We get back up and resume walking again.

v/r

Mike