Strategy
Strategy
Posted on Jul 25, 2017
U.S. military: Too much tactics, too little strategy
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Insightful article COL Mikel J. Burroughs CPT Pedro Meza SSG Robert Webster CDR (Join to see) GySgt Wayne A. Ekblad SMSgt Lawrence McCarter Sgt David G Duchesneau PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SMSgt Minister Gerald A. "Doc" Thomas
U.S. military: Too much tactics, too little strategy
Posted from salon.comPosted in these groups: 
Strategy
Tactics
Middle East
Leadership
Geopolitics / International Relations
Strategy Tactics Middle East Leadership Geopolitics / International Relations
Posted 7 y ago
Responses: 4
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The US was created by defeating an army that won almost every fight and had Superior tactics but no united strategy , Why are we repeating the Brits mistakes of the late 1700s?
From what should be required reading for anyone in the military:
"Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. " Sun Tsu
From what should be required reading for anyone in the military:
"Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. " Sun Tsu
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CPT (Join to see)
China learned long long ago to live and let live; after uniting nations by blood; fighting should be absolutely the last resort, and preparation for war must be thorough and continuous. They are using soft power to link nations by economics first. Once they control that, politics will follow. People got to eat first.
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1stSgt Nelson Kerr
CPT (Join to see) - China is not the least bit shy about using military power to bully others, Vietnamese can testify to that, the Island they are building testify to that also. Do not get starry eyed, the people that run that nation are the legal and moral descendents of Mao who murdered approximately 30 million Chinese not all that long ago, They are also the same vile garbage that ran tanks over their own in Beijing not all that long ago.
I greatly admire Chinese traditional culture but the system they have now is not based on the morality of Confucius but the ethics of slave-masters.
if you read Sun Tsu soft power is just another way to destroy your opponents.
I greatly admire Chinese traditional culture but the system they have now is not based on the morality of Confucius but the ethics of slave-masters.
if you read Sun Tsu soft power is just another way to destroy your opponents.
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CPT (Join to see)
1stSgt Nelson Kerr - All true, except Chinese Communists are nationalistic themselves; No nations remain friends forever, all have to preserve their unique national interests. Vietnam got their ego greatly boosted after driving us out in the 70's, and forgot the great support in manpower and material China provided during the Vietnam War; They claim they were the number 3 military power in the world after US and USSR. Deng Xiaoping came to United States and wanted to build alliances with us to fight the USSR at the time, and Vietnam did not like it. Vietnam started to kill and drive out Chinese descent Vietnamese, confiscating their property, and started a shooting war with China. The numbers were classified, but I knew the whole northern Vietnam became villages with widows, since the Vietnamese like to arm all civilians, as we experienced first hand in Vietnam War. Chinese troop killed them all and destroyed all infrastructure of military value, including almost all elementary schools of no military value. The Chinese military suffered great losses in life, but since the war was fought in Vietnam and brief, Vietnam lost much more, again, it was classified on both sides. War is hell.
I do not like the Chinese Communist government, but they are pragmatic and learned a lot from us in finance and military operations. Just take a look at their infantry Soldiers, they look almost exactly like US Soldiers from a distance. They still use Confucius thought to control the population, but the war philosophy of Chinese generals are much more westernized, since they knew they have to improve and learn from us, or be defeated again. Potential for gigantic global conflict is here, very very close. They know one thing, in order to win, they will fight in and occupy other lands so their own infrastructure remains intact. That is a direct copy from us. Copy cats.
I do not like the Chinese Communist government, but they are pragmatic and learned a lot from us in finance and military operations. Just take a look at their infantry Soldiers, they look almost exactly like US Soldiers from a distance. They still use Confucius thought to control the population, but the war philosophy of Chinese generals are much more westernized, since they knew they have to improve and learn from us, or be defeated again. Potential for gigantic global conflict is here, very very close. They know one thing, in order to win, they will fight in and occupy other lands so their own infrastructure remains intact. That is a direct copy from us. Copy cats.
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We are in a dilemma. We have Terrorist Safe havens in Pakistan. Our SF goes in there sometimes but the Pakistanis can't seem to get rid of the insurgents in there. Pakistan and Afghanistan have borders set up by the British a Century ago but the Tribes and clans are split about evenly on both sides of the border. The Madrassas paid for by Saudi Arabia foster Whabbists fundamental Islam that both the Tabliban and Isis Embrace yet Saudi Arabia is our ally while their Clergy spread their fundamentalism Worldwide. The Afghanistan Haraz Chinese Minority are Shia and often beheaded by the Taliban in Afghanistan. This will be a long war. The Iraqi and Afghan Governments have a lot of infighting and corruption that shows they can't go at it alone or they will lose to ISIS or the Taliban again. Iran now pulls the strings in Iraq.
Even if we walk away, the enemy comes to our shores like the 9/11 attacks. I am not a one Star General but we need to stay there to check both Iranian Shia Hezbollah and ISIS/Taliban Sunni influence abroad. They both kill Democratic principles and both despise the United States and Western Democracies. We have Sharia Law in Saudi Arabia and something similar in Iran. We need to contain these influences and support moderate Islam that both Saudi Arabian and Iranian Clergy don't like since we are in a cultural war as well. We foster democracy and their clergy does not. We can't give up. There are no safe spaces here and look at Sharia Law and no-go zones showing up all over Europe where the local city government is in a struggle to prevent Sharia from being the norm in neighborhoods in Western Europe and Scandanavia.
The Middle East will continue to fester as part of this War against the West. Israel is the Target of Iran. I suspect Iran has a faction that wants to eventually Nuke Israel as part of a doomsday cult to Bring back the Hidden Imam (Mohammed rapture cult) Shia and Sunni rivalries and no real progress in the Arabs accepting Israel's right to exist. Syrian Civil War with Russia and Iran supporting Assad. Turkey may not be our NATO ally very much longer with its government becoming a Dictatorship.
We try our best to win the hearts and minds of people in the world but we have allies like Saudi Arabia that have Politiclal/Religious influences that go against our goals of peace and diversity. Israel needs to be accepted by the Arabs and Iran. We can't give up and go smoke pot like our disenfranchised youth and some who would rather escape into their denial and their addictions like many druggies do to escape reality. We are in a long war. This is a threat to peace worldwide. We can't implode like the Roman Empire did in the 4th Century AD. We can't give up. We must keep working on this since the terrorists are just waiting us out.
COL M Stock COL Mikel J. Burroughs 1LT Sandy Annala CPT Pedro Meza MAJ (Join to see) LTC Stephen C. LTC Stephen F. SMSgt Lawrence McCarter SMSgt Minister Gerald A. "Doc" Thomas MSG Andrew White LTC Ivan Raiklin, Esq. Capt Sabrena Goldman
SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SFC William Farrell PFC Talal Al-Tunsi
Candy Alkaabi PO1 William "Chip" Nagel PO3 John Wagner @ Erin Nelson CSM Charles Hayden SFC (Join to see)
Even if we walk away, the enemy comes to our shores like the 9/11 attacks. I am not a one Star General but we need to stay there to check both Iranian Shia Hezbollah and ISIS/Taliban Sunni influence abroad. They both kill Democratic principles and both despise the United States and Western Democracies. We have Sharia Law in Saudi Arabia and something similar in Iran. We need to contain these influences and support moderate Islam that both Saudi Arabian and Iranian Clergy don't like since we are in a cultural war as well. We foster democracy and their clergy does not. We can't give up. There are no safe spaces here and look at Sharia Law and no-go zones showing up all over Europe where the local city government is in a struggle to prevent Sharia from being the norm in neighborhoods in Western Europe and Scandanavia.
The Middle East will continue to fester as part of this War against the West. Israel is the Target of Iran. I suspect Iran has a faction that wants to eventually Nuke Israel as part of a doomsday cult to Bring back the Hidden Imam (Mohammed rapture cult) Shia and Sunni rivalries and no real progress in the Arabs accepting Israel's right to exist. Syrian Civil War with Russia and Iran supporting Assad. Turkey may not be our NATO ally very much longer with its government becoming a Dictatorship.
We try our best to win the hearts and minds of people in the world but we have allies like Saudi Arabia that have Politiclal/Religious influences that go against our goals of peace and diversity. Israel needs to be accepted by the Arabs and Iran. We can't give up and go smoke pot like our disenfranchised youth and some who would rather escape into their denial and their addictions like many druggies do to escape reality. We are in a long war. This is a threat to peace worldwide. We can't implode like the Roman Empire did in the 4th Century AD. We can't give up. We must keep working on this since the terrorists are just waiting us out.
COL M Stock COL Mikel J. Burroughs 1LT Sandy Annala CPT Pedro Meza MAJ (Join to see) LTC Stephen C. LTC Stephen F. SMSgt Lawrence McCarter SMSgt Minister Gerald A. "Doc" Thomas MSG Andrew White LTC Ivan Raiklin, Esq. Capt Sabrena Goldman
SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SFC William Farrell PFC Talal Al-Tunsi
Candy Alkaabi PO1 William "Chip" Nagel PO3 John Wagner @ Erin Nelson CSM Charles Hayden SFC (Join to see)
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LTC (Join to see)
CPT (Join to see) - we don't have the money in neither do the Israelis. We didn't have the money either in 1940 and 1941 when we brought in the draft in gearing up for World War II. We didn't have the money either and our military was going to just before the Korean War. You saw how task force Smith went with weapon systems that didn't work. We somehow have to invest her money. We gave away 2 full brigades worth of prepositional Warstock at the end of the first Cold War to the Europeans. Now we are in the second Cold War and we're building up forces again. We only have so much on hand at Diego Garcia or other preposition locations throughout the world. Just think how much money we would have on hand to buy equipment if we wouldn't have spent 265 billion dollars on the F-35. 165 billion dollars I'm referring to is over budget.
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CPT (Join to see)
We definitely have technical advantages. But do we have the will to fight a nuclear armed close peer? We only have one earth to call home. Unless we have found another planet to move to, we need to work with other nations. The question is, do we have the support of the entire country to fight and win?
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CPT (Join to see)
The industrial military complex will make money; we have four year elections, they have life time dictatorships. We will never win their hearts and minds. Some ancient civilizations just won't buy our ideals, nothing we do will change that.
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COL Cassidy has some excellent points. I would suggest that some of you read some more of his material, if you have not already.
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