| by Rupert Smith, 2005 |
| |
First
extract: |
| |
Introduction:
Understanding Force |
|
It
may be as well to begin this investigation with a discussion of military
force, since it is common to all paradigms for war - and unfortunately
is often commonly misunderstood. Force is the basis of any military activity,
whether in a theatre of operations or in a skirmish between two soldiers.
It is both the physical means of destruction - the bullet, the bayonet
- and the body that applies it. It has been so since the beginning of
time. Indeed, the essence of force and its military uses are identical
now to that described in the Bible, Sun Tzu's Art of War, the Greek and
Nordic myths, and just about any historical book on battle and warfare. |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| Second
extract: |
|
| |
|
|
| Antithesis:
From Guerillas to Anarchists to Mao |
|
Interstate
industrial war evolved through a combination of theory - with the enduring
influence of Clausewitz - and practice. In contrast, its antithesis evolved
far more through ideological commitment of some kind from the participants.
However, it was in the interwar period that ideology really came to the
fore. In the early 1920s, at about the same time Lawrence was writing his
account of the war in Arabia and Palestine, a trend that had existed for
some decades became linked with the tactical ideas of guerilla war. |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| Third
extract: |
|
| |
|
|
| Trends: Our
Modern Operations |
|
The people
being attacked in the Second World War were those of the enemy government:
they were understood to be the support base of the opposing force. The postwar
bombings are different, since the attackers depend on the people to be able
to prosecute their attacks, whether they cooperate or not: they are carried
out both on and amongst the people. The main and significant similarity
between the two forms of attack is the political objective, which both in
the war and ever since has been the intentions or will of the people - as
already noted above in the first trend [I believe this first trend is the
contradictory U.N. mandates and restrictions that are applied to the stationed
armed forces - the contradictory mandates of 'peacekeeping' and 'force']. |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
| |
| |
| |
On this article....
|
|
To the best of my
memory, Rupert Smith was the Brigadier commanding 4th Armoured Brigade,
Modern warfare (if it can even be still called
that) is different, and the 21st Century needs to learn (and General Smith's
written work is a start). |
| |
| |
| |
 |
| |
I guess he has retired now;
and hence this publication,
which is an excellent read. |
