Tactical Innovation

The Islamofascists and the Islamic world have begun to achieve unexpected success in their war against the Western Powers due to a tactical innovation heretofore unprecedented in the annals of warfare.

The history of the Human Race has been one filled with warfare. Most of the major, intractable, issues of political, economic, social, religious and even philosophical differences, have, in the end, only come to resolution on the field of combat. In all these conflicts, no civilization or military tactician hit upon this innovative new tactic that the Muslims are deploying against the west, to great effect, in every theater of this global conflict. Like the other few history changing military advances, this brilliant innovation turns our strengths into weakness's, and their weaknesses into strengths. It actually capitalizes on the wide disparity in military capabilities.

In the field of military science, great shifts in tactics occur very rarely, and often only in conjunction with the deployment of a new technology. The prescient General or Military commander sees how a shift in technology can change the strategic balance, and exploits it with a new tactic. Patton wrote about how the Tank and mechanized warfare could completely change the face or warfare, and render static defenses obsolete. The wehrmacht read his book and changed warfare forever with the blitzkrieg. Here, the Islamic world has taken a change in world technology, and utilized it to wholly change the way battles are fought, probably forever in the foreseeable future. However, this tactic is not dependent on the Muslims themselves possessing any new technology, the means were available at any point in history. Despite its simplicity, this tactic was not thought of, or deployed by any of the great generals. Alexander the Great never tried it, no Roman General ever considered it, not did Genghis Kahn, or any of the Prussian Generals. It was not described or even predicted by Sun Tzu, Napoleon, nor during WWI. Neither the Axis nor the Allies attempted it in any theatre of WWII. The Islamists have created an entirely new form of warfare, based on this new tactic, to which the Western armies seem particularly vulnerable.

For simplicities sake, we can refer to this new tactic as "whining."

The way this tactic is deployed, the numerically and technologically inferior force launches an unprovoked attack on a Western power. They really only need weapons little better than stone knives and bearskins. Due to the fact that it is an attack oriented on surprise, subterfuge, or stealth, they manage to inflict some damage on the Western power, even if that may only mean one or two casualties. The brilliance of the strategy only then comes into effect. Like Genghis Kahn, this original attack force flees, retreating to safe territory. Unlike Genghis Khan, who would have a militarily superior force waiting to pounce on the counter attack, the Muslim armies have no need of a counterstrike force. They break ranks, flee, and retreat into populated areas, dispersing into a population by shedding any uniforms or military accoutrements. The erstwhile attackers adopt a cringing pose to better blend in with non-combatants, and hide behind civilians, multinational or UN forces.

Rather than the former paradigm, where propaganda organs minimize ones own losses and maximize the enemies, in an attempt to effect morale on both sides, their political organs maximize images of their own casualties. They loudly proclaim the utterness of their own defeat and rout, launching into full "Whine" mode. They demand the world community protect them, and condemn the Western power for using such "brutal" means in defending itself. Brilliantly, they use the ineffectiveness of their own assault as a basis for a claim that they the aggrieved party. As an "aggrieved party" they then begin to make demands of the party they just attacked. The demands are for the attacked party to voluntarily concede those strategic objectives the attacker could not achieve by military force. By utilizing the world technological shift, created by having a 24 hour, mass media news cycle, they turn the victims into "aggressors," and in the end use their own military weakness as a basis for making demands of the more powerful state, requiring concessions and reparations.

In no previous conflict has any expansionist movement considered effectively using whining to achieve tactical victory.

Interestingly, whining, as a tactic, only works if your opponent is a good guy! One cannot imagine fighting Stalin by continually launching ineffective attacks on him, and then yelling about how badly he treated your country afterward. Similarly, it would be laughable to postulate a Polish aggression against Hitler's Germany, consisting of a few mortar attacks, followed by pleas to the world about how it shouldn't be invaded over a few measly mortar rounds. The Islamists use our civility and compassion against us. This use of kindness, to exploit the good party, is the very definition of pure, uncomplicated, and evil. It is a tactic of which comic book villains and Snidely Whiplash would be proud.

This strategy has been well known in individual human relations as "the Little Bully." In many families or schoolyards, a smaller or younger individual realizes that he or she can attack larger members with impunity if he cries loudly and piteously enough at any retaliation. However, this situation can only occur when there is a structure or individual with actual or perceived authority over both parties to the incident. Further, that authority must have a clouded sense of justice regarding the individuals appearing before it, either through ignorance of the events, a profound absence of wisdom, or at worst some pre-existing bias in favor of the "Little Bully". It may be that this new tactic is only now viable due to a strengthening of the influence of a "World Community".

If so, then it speaks poorly of the attentiveness, wisdom, and motivations of this developing "Community." This community cannot be said to be ignorant of the provocations of the Islamic states, since their attacks and bellicose statements are widely broadcast. This means that the "Community" is condemning the wrong parties, and giving succor to "the Little Bully" either from a profound absence of sound judgment, or a pernicious bias towards a favored little sociopath. The world "Community" is cast in the role of either the idiot, or the wicked stepmother. The long held dream of a "Community of Nations" will be soured and squandered, if that community continues to express a will that is foolish and bereft of merit. The world will indeed be in sorry shape if it’s military, economic, political, scientific, technological, and philosophical leaders can be overthrown by "whining."

By David Roth

Posted September 17, 2006 01:42 AM
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