Quote of the Week: John Robb

From John Robb at Global Guerrillas we have this Quote of the Week:

"I suspect that one reason for the atrocious behavior of our current crop of elites is that they (being historically naive) don't fear the mob anymore. They should."

To the NeoNazi National Alliance Puke Who Tried to Use a Comment To Pimp A Racist Collectivist Book on My Blog.

Didn't work, did it?

You slime will have to do a lot better than that to slip one past me. I've been fighting you Pink Swastika types almost all my life, and anything from Hillsboro, West Virginia has the stench of death about it. Your dead Ersatz-Fuehrer William Pierce is burning in Hell right now. Why don't you get smart before you join him?

I always wondered why Pierce had to find an "untermenschen" Eastern European mail-order bride to marry him. Doesn't that violate your racial theories?

You want to pimp a book? I'll give you a title to pimp:


You've heard of this solid piece of historical scholarship, haven't you? Its the one that proves Der Fuehrer was a nancy-boy prostitute in Vienna.

Why don't you take your FuehrerPrinzip and shove it up your . . . But, oh, wait a minute, you might actually LIKE that, eh? Never mind. Here's a pin-up for you to pine over.
Der Warmerbruder Fuehrer, 1930. Doesn't he just give you a thrill?

Now go away, or I shall taunt you a second time.

Praxis: "How to Hide from Airborne Detection Devices."

A hat tip to Jim Z. for pointing me to this link, How to Hide from Airborne Detection Devices. I invite comment, especially experienced comment.

FUSA (the Former USA) and "Social Collapse Best Practices"

Courtesy of John Robb at Global Guerrillas we have this link to a speech by Yuri Orlov.

Here's a taste up front to give you an idea.

Forget “growth,” forget “jobs,” forget “financial stability.” What should their [the government's] realistic new objectives be? Well, here they are: food, shelter, transportation, and security. Their task is to find a way to provide all of these necessities on an emergency basis, in absence of a functioning economy, with commerce at a standstill, with little or no access to imports, and to make them available to a population that is largely penniless. If successful, society will remain largely intact, and will be able to begin a slow and painful process of cultural transition, and eventually develop a new economy, a gradually de-industrializing economy, at a much lower level of resource expenditure, characterized by a quite a lot of austerity and even poverty, but in conditions that are safe, decent, and dignified. If unsuccessful, society will be gradually destroyed in a series of convulsions that will leave a defunct nation composed of many wretched little fiefdoms. Given its largely depleted resource base, a dysfunctional, collapsing infrastructure, and its history of unresolved social conflicts, the territory of the Former United States will undergo a process of steady degeneration punctuated by natural and man-made cataclysms.

Interested? Well, go to the link and read the whole thing. It is important. Read it. Start thinking in terms of resilient communities that can be put together near you. The armed citizenry will have an important part in whatever civilization remains. Get ready. Here's some more toward the end of the speech:

OK, first question: How about all these financial boondoggles? What on earth is going on? People are losing their jobs left and right, and if we calculate unemployment the same way it was done during the Great Depression, instead of looking at the cooked numbers the government is trying to feed us now, then we are heading toward 20% unemployment. And is there any reason to think it’ll stop there? Do you happen to believe that prosperity is around the corner? Not only jobs and housing equity, but retirement savings are also evaporating. The federal government is broke, state governments are broke, some more than others, and the best they can do is print money, which will quickly lose value. So, how can we get the basics if we don’t have any money? How is that done? Good question.

As I briefly mentioned, the basics are food, shelter, transportation, and security. Shelter poses a particularly interesting problem at the moment. It is still very much overpriced, with many people paying mortgages and rents that they can no longer afford while numerous properties stand vacant. The solution, of course, is to cut your losses and stop paying. But then you might soon have to relocate. That is OK, because, as I mentioned, there is no shortage of vacant properties around. Finding a good place to live will become less and less of a problem as people stop paying their rents and mortgages and get foreclosed or evicted, because the number of vacant properties will only increase. The best course of action is to become a property caretaker, legitimately occupying a vacant property rent-free, and keeping an eye on things for the owner. What if you can’t find a position as a property caretaker? Well, then you might have to become a squatter, maintain a list of other vacant properties that you can go to next, and keep your camping gear handy just in case. If you do get tossed out, chances are, the people who tossed you out will then think about hiring a property caretaker, to keep the squatters out. And what do you do if you become property caretaker? Well, you take care of the property, but you also look out for all the squatters, because they are the reason you have a legitimate place to live. A squatter in hand is worth three absentee landlords in the bush. The absentee landlord might eventually cut his losses and go away, but your squatter friends will remain as your neighbors. Having some neighbors is so much better than living in a ghost town.

What if you still have a job? How do you prepare then? The obvious answer is, be prepared to quit or to be laid off or fired at any moment. It really doesn’t matter which one of these it turns out to be; the point is to sustain zero psychological damage in the process. Get your burn rate to as close to zero as you can, by spending as little money as possible, so than when the job goes away, not much has to change. While at work, do as little as possible, because all this economic activity is just a terrible burden on the environment. Just gently ride it down to a stop and jump off.

If you still have a job, or if you still have some savings, what do you do with all the money? The obvious answer is, build up inventory. The money will be worthless, but a box of bronze nails will still be a box of bronze nails. Buy and stockpile useful stuff, especially stuff that can be used to create various kinds of alternative systems for growing food, providing shelter, and providing transportation. If you don’t own a patch of dirt free and clear where you can stockpile stuff, then you can rent a storage container, pay it a few years forward, and just sit on it until reality kicks in again and there is something useful for you to do with it. Some of you may be frightened by the future I just described, and rightly so. There is nothing any of us can do to change the path we are on: it is a huge system with tremendous inertia, and trying to change its path is like trying to change the path of a hurricane. What we can do is prepare ourselves, and each other, mostly by changing our expectations, our preferences, and scaling down our needs. It may mean that you will miss out on some last, uncertain bit of enjoyment. On the other hand, by refashioning yourself into someone who might stand a better chance of adapting to the new circumstances, you will be able to give to yourself, and to others, a great deal of hope that would otherwise not exist.

Democrats! RINOs! Just in time for a new gun control bill! Mercedes has a deal for you!

Courtesy of Jared Paul Stern at Luxist we have this:

Mercedes' New Armored E-Class Stops .44 Magnums, Hand Grenades

Posted Feb 11th 2009 8:02AM by Jared Paul Stern

Mercedes-Benz is coming out with an armored version of its all-new 2010 E-Class, able to withstand fire from weapons up to a .44 Magnum, and with optional underbody armor, hand grenade blasts as well. The E-Guard, which will be available when the sleek new 2010 E-Class goes on sale this summer, receives reinforced "protective elements" around the bodyshell consisting of high-strength steel and aramide components, aided by resistant polycarbonate glazing, MotorTrend reports. Despite the additions luxurious interior space and comfort levels remain the same as the standard E-Class, and pricing begins at about $58,000 depending on the specific model and drivetrain selected.

And just in time for a new gun control bill. Now isn't that timely marketing?

Who said it?

“Give that man a kewpie doll!” — William Holden as Sgt. Sefton, in Stalag 17

WHO SAID THIS?

"Screw the Founding Fathers. They’ve been dead for 200 years. People like you . . . who spout this sort of crap are the reason we have gun control in this country."

Was it:

a. Paul Helmke of the Brady Bunch.

b. Diane Feinstein, US Senator, California.

c. Thomas Dodd, US Senator, Connecticut and author of the Gun Control Act of 1968.

d. Wayne LaPierre, National Rifle Association "Laird of Fairfax."

e. LaPierre's lickspittle, Jacob Rieper, Legislative Director for the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association.

If you guessed "e.," you win a kewpie doll. The rest of the quote directed at David Codrea from December, 2008:

"You are the problem, not NRA. Sitting around whining about how things are unconstitutional or quoting bullshit from the Founding Fathers accomplishes nothing. The Constitution is just a piece of paper. If you don’t have the desire and ability to elect people who respect it, your opinions mean nothing. There’s a reason GOA has negligible political influence and others like JPFO have zero. If you think the 2A is an individual right then explain in detail your plan for electing people who agree with you. If you think this Fincher guy has gotten shafted, then explain in detail your plan for electing judges who agree with you."

Mr. Rieper, it seems, is mad at David once again, here and here, this time over the purported ideological chastity of the new US Senator from New York. Poor baby. And we should pay attention to him, why, exactly?

Robert Heinlein: Pioneer Thinker in Fourth Generation Warfare

(Y)ou can forget all that dreck about 4GW and RMA. They are just Madison Avenue terms designed to extract a few more bucks from the taxpayers' pockets. War has always been about will. Weapons, tactics, strategies are just tools used to affect the enemies will. Of course the ulitmate tool for that is a nuclear weapon. Nothing effects an opponent's will more than killing him. And rumor has it that the long term effects are just as good as the short term ones. I assure you Custer will never again burn any Indian villages. -- Tomanbeg on Strategy Page Military Science Fiction Discussion Board, 26 Sept 2003

To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting. -Sun Tzu, the Art of War

In January, 1941, after the fall of France and almost a full year before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a small circulation magazine called Astounding Science Fiction began a serialized story (continued in the February and March issues) credited to "Anson MacDonald." It was entitled "Sixth Column."

Its author was in fact Robert Anson Heinlein, from an original idea given to him by Astounding's editor, John W. Campbell. For the time, it was an incredible piece of work, and amazingly it still stands the test of time on very many levels. Sixth Column was later reissued in hardcover in 1949.

Yet, it was one of Heinlein's most difficult projects to write, because it was a hand-off story concept and Campbell's original story idea was light on specifics -- especially science and military -- and long on anti-oriental racism. It was so difficult that Heinlein never again accepted someone else's idea as the basis for one of his novels. As Heinlein recalled:

Writing Sixth Column was a job I sweated over. I had to reslant it to remove racist aspects of the original story line. And I didn't really believe the pseudoscientific rationale of Campbell's three spectra — so I worked especially hard to make it sound realistic.

In Sixth Column (also known under the title The Day After Tomorrow)the United States has been conquered by the PanAsians, a combination of Chinese and Japanese, who have also taken the Soviet Union and India. In the process, they have developed a credo:

"Three things only do slaves require: work, food, and their religion."

As Wikipedia notes,

"The book is notable for its frank and controversial portrayal of racism. The conquerors regard themselves as a chosen people predestined to rule over lesser races, and they refer to white people as slaves. . . . They require outward signs of respect, such as jumping promptly into the gutter when a member of the chosen race walks by, and the slightest hesitation to show the prescribed courtesies earns a swagger stick across the face."

Yet the most heroic action taken by any character in the book is made by Frank Mitsui, an Asian American whose family was murdered by the invaders because they did not fit in the new PanAsiatic racial order. (Frank's wife was black and his kids of mixed-race.) This was a daring plot element at the time.

And Heinlein does not whitewash his heroes either. The Americans return their conquerors' racism by often referring to them as "flat faces", "slanties," and "monkey boys". For this reason, Heinlein's Sixth Column has been denounced as racist by some left-wing critics. It is not. It was, for its time, about as explicitly anti-racist as you could expect.

The Citadel, a top secret research facility hidden in the Colorado mountains is the last remaining outpost of the United States Army after its defeat by the PanAsians. Major Ardmore, sent by the War Department to convey final orders for independent resistance to the lab, discovers that a weapons development accident has killed all but six of the facility's staff of over 300. The survivors are demoralized and want to quit. Ardmore takes command and soon the survivors learn the principles behind the weapon and how to control it. What they lack, Ardmore is painfully aware, is numbers to wield it in battle but first and foremost, an intelligence network to help them plan a campaign and target the weapon. Today we call this "Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield." Ardmore finds his intelligence operative in a hobo named Jeff Thomas, a hobo who wandered into the Citadel as the war was drawing to a close.

(Heinlein's characters draw their strengths from their unlikely life experiences. Thomas has learned from ten years as an itinerant laborer how to move without being seen, how to blend in, how to adapt to changing circumstances and he has the support network of other hobos. In the ruins of civilization, it is those who had the least to lose that survived the best. Perhaps, Heinlein hints, because their minds were already adjusted to dealing in adversity. Likewise, Ardmore is not a West Point trained officer. He is a marketing executive swept up in the war emergency. But this is key to his ability to think unconventionally and find a solution to the problems at hand.)

Robert Anson Heinlein, United States Naval Academy, 1929.

Inextricably linked with the concerns of pitiful numbers and lack of intelligence is the fact that the PanAsians make the Nazis look like pikers when it comes to retaliation against innocents for any show of defiance.

Everywhere (Thomas) found boiling resentment, a fierce willingness to fight against the tyranny, but it was undirected, uncoordinated, and in any modern sense, unarmed. Sporadic rebellion was as futile as the scurrying of ants whose hill has been violated. PanAsians could be killed, yes, and there were men willing to shoot on sight, even in the face of the certainty of their own deaths. But their hands were bound by the greater certainty of brutal multiple retaliation against their own kind. As with the Jews of Germany before the final blackout in Europe, bravery was not enough, for one act of violence against the tyrants would be paid for by other men, women and children at unspeakable compound interest. -- p. 32

Once Ardmore is better informed about the conditions outside the Citadel, the more difficult his problem appears. The perfection of the weapon system leads others within the Citadel to want to use it immediately. Ardmore refuses.

Any way he looked at it, simple, straightforward military use of the new weapons was not expedient. Brutal frontal attack was for the commander who had men to expend. General U.S. Grant could afford to say, "I will fight it out on this line if it takes all summer," because he could lose three men to the enemy's one and still win. Those tactics were not for the commander who could not afford to lose ANY men. For him it must be deception, misdirection -- feint, slash and run away -- "and live to fight another day." The nursery rhyme finished itself in his mind. That was it. It had to be something totally unexpected, something that the PanAsians wouLd not realize was warfare until they were overwhelmed by it.

It would have to be something like the "fifth columns" that destroyed the European democracies from within in the tragic days that led to the final blackout of European civilization. But this would not be a fifth column of traitors, bent on paralyzing a free country, but the antithesis of that, a sixth column of patriots whose privilege it wouod be to destroy the morale of invaders, make them sfraid, unsure of themselves.

And misdirection was the key to it, the art of fooling! -- pp. 56-57

Here we have Sun Tzu's dictum embraced, rather than the attrition warfare expressed by Tomanbeg above. Time and again in the book, the principles of maneuver warfare and 4GW leap from the page.

He realized suddenly that he was thinking of the problem in direct terms again, in spite of his conscious knowledge that such an approach was futile. What he wanted was psychological jiu-jitsu -- some way to turn their own strength against them. Misdirection -- that was the idea! Whatever it was they expected him to do, don't do it! Do something else. -- p. 199

And this was written in 1940!

As the campaign of psy-war and misdirection continues, Heinlein enunciates another maneuver warfare principle: subordinate commanders, right down to a fire team corporal, are to be permitted and encouraged to think for themselves and act decisively:

Thomas took the report and read it, then nodded agreement. . . "Perhaps we should have given more detailed instructions."

"I don't think so. Detailed instructions are the death of initiative. This way we have them all striving to think up some particularly annoying way to get under the skins of our . . . lords. I expect some very amusing and ingenious results." -- pp. 227-228

Finally, as the campaign enters its final hours, there is this:

How much longer, Chief?" asked Thomas.

"Not very long. We'll let 'em talk long enough for them to know something hellacious is happening all over the country. Now we've cut 'em off. That should produce a feeling of panic. I want to let that panic have time to ripen and spread to every Pan Asian in the country. When I figure they're ripe, we'll sock it to 'em!"

"How will you tell?"

"I can't. It will be on hunch, between ourselves. We'll let the little darlings run around in circles for a while, not over an hour, then give'em the works."

Dr. Brooks nervously attempted to make conversation. "It certainly will be a relief to have this entire matter settled onde and for always. It's been very trying at times ---" His voice trailed off.

Ardmore turned on him. "Don't ever think we can settle things 'once and for always.'"

"But surely -- if we defeat the PanAsians decisively -- "

"That's where you are wrong about it." The nervous strain he was under showed in his brusque manner. "We got into this jam by thinking we could settle things once and for always. . . We should have known better; there were plenty of lessons in history. The old French Republic tried to freeze events to one pattern with the Versailles Treaty. When that didn't work, they built the Maginot Line and went to sleep behind it. What did it get them? Final blackout!"

"Life is a dynamic process and can't be made static. '--- and they all lived happily ever after' is fairy tale stupidity." -- pp. 231-232

"The price of liberty is eternal vigilance," Heinlein tells us in Sixth Column, along with presenting a marvelous tale instructing us in the principles of maneuver warfare and 4GW. And he wrote it in 1940. That in itself is "Amazing."

Get it.

Read it.

(Correction: You can't find Sixth Column at most local bookstores, in fact it's out of print. As some of the posters below onserve, you can find it on the Net but it ain't cheap. My apologies. I thought the receipt inside the book (from last year at Books-A-Million, belonged to the volume I have. It didn't. I ahve the fifth Naen printing, 1999. Oops. However, if you can find it, it is worth it.)

Praxis: Body Armor Update

From Strategy Page. Note who's making our SAPI plates these days.

Every Little Bit

February 12, 2009: For over a year, the U.S. Army and Marines have been replacing existing SAPI (Small arms protective inserts) ceramic bulletproof plates (for protective vests), with thicker, but heavier ESAPI plates. The new ESAPI provides protection from armor piercing bullets, which enemy snipers are increasingly using.

The basic "Level 3" SAPI plates are 10x12 inches, weigh 4.6 pounds each and cost about $400. The older Level 4 plates, weighing about 6.4 pounds each, could stop armor piercing bullets, and the new XSAPI weighs about six pounds and have the same stopping power. ESAPI is more expensive, at $600 a plate. There are also smaller plates that can be worn on the side. Despite pressure from politicians to force the troops to wear the side plates (which constrict movement and add weight), the generals dug in their heels, and were allowed to let local commanders to decide if side plates had to be worn.

While the troops appreciated the additional protection, they noted two things.

First, the extra three pounds for the heavier front and back ESAPI plates added to the already hefty load they had to carry. Troops also noted that they rarely encountered enemy troops using armor piercing bullets. Thus the older SAPI plates were preferred, simply because they saved three pounds of weight. That three pounds made a difference, probably more psychologically than physiologically. But weight is a big issue, especially when operating in tropical climates. Troops do all sorts of things to save weight, and using the less sturdy SAPI plates is just one of them.

SAPI are made of boron carbide ceramic with a spectra shield backing. This combination causes bullets to fragment and slow down before getting through the plate. Occasionally, some fragments will get through, but these are stopped by the layers of Kevlar that make up the flak jackets. The ceramic plates require a manufacturing process that uses, and produces, a lot of toxic chemicals, much of the production has moved to China.

The success of the plates, and the frequent attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq has led the U.S. Army to try and get enough plates for all troops in the combat zone, not just those in infantry units. This is more of a morale issue than anything else, as non-infantry troops are most frequently exposed to bombs and RPGs. The fragments from these weapons can be stopped by the flack jackets without the plates. But morale is important, so the army is trying to get enough SAPI plates for everyone.

The military plans to spend $6 billion on more XSAPI and ESAPI plates that many of the troops don’t want. Actually, those troops who don't have to run around a lot, like those running convoys through hostile areas, don't mind the additional weight of ESAPI. But for the infantry, less weight is a lifesaver.

Does a Mercenary By Any Other Name Smell Just as Foul?

Jacki Junti sends us this article. Blackwater, it seems, is changing its name.

US security firm mired in Iraq controversy changes its name

Blackwater Worldwide renamed Xe as company tries to salvage its tarnished brand

Blackwater Worldwide is abandoning its tarnished brand name as it tries to shake a reputation battered by oft-criticised work in Iraq, renaming its family of two dozen businesses under the name Xe. The parent company's new name is pronounced like the letter z.

Blackwater Lodge & Training Centre ­ the subsidiary that conducts much of the company's overseas operations and domestic training ­ has been renamed US Training Centre Inc., the company said today.

The decision comes as part of an ongoing rebranding effort that grew more urgent following a September 2007 shooting in Iraq that left at least a dozen civilians dead. Blackwater president Gary Jackson said in a memo to employees the new name reflects the change in company focus away from the business of providing private security.

"The volume of changes over the past half-year have taken the company to an exciting place and we are now ready for two of the final, and most obvious changes," Jackson said in the note.

In his memo, Jackson indicated the company was not interested in actively pursuing new private security contracts. Jackson and other Blackwater executives said last year the company was shifting its focus away from such work to focus on training and providing logistics.

"This company will continue to provide personnel protective services for high-threat environments when needed by the US government, but its primary mission will be operating our training facilities around the world, including the flagship campus in North Carolina," Jackson said.

Blackwater mercenaries patrol New Orleans streets in the aftermath of Katrina.

The company has operated under the Blackwater name since 1997, when chief executive Erik Prince and some of his former Navy Seal colleagues launched it in north-eastern North Carolina, naming their new endeavour for the area swamp streams that run black with murky water. But the name change underscores how badly the Moyock-based company's brand was damaged by its work in Iraq.

In 2004, four of its contractors were killed in an insurgent ambush in Fallujuah, with their bodies burned, mutilated and strung from a bridge. The incident triggered a US siege of the restive city.

The September 2007 shooting in Baghdad's Nisoor Square added to the damage. The incident infuriated politicians both in Baghdad in Washington, triggering congressional hearings and increasing calls that the company be banned from operating in Iraq.

Last month, Iraqi leaders said they would not renew Blackwater's license to operate there, citing the lingering outrage over the shooting in Nisoor Square, and the US state department said later it will not renew Blackwater's contract to protect diplomats when it expires in May.

Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said the company made the name change largely because of changes in its focus, but acknowledged the need for the company to shake its past in Iraq.

"It's not a direct result of a loss of contract, but certainly that is an aspect of our work that we feel we were defined by," Tyrrell said.

The Growing Army of Angry Men

"The hour is fast approaching when each and every one of us will have to decide for ourselves whether we will try to fight this devastating government machine, or join it."

My thanks to Jackie Junti for forwarding this to me from LewRockwell.

The Growing Army of Angry Men Whose Lives Have Been Destroyed by the Federal Government

by Mark R. Crovelli


One of the hardest things to deal with in the current economic depression is the disgusting hypocrisy of the U.S. congress, the new president, and the members of the Federal Reserve System. It is one thing to be told, as we all are, that we must hand over fat wads of our hard-earned money to these warmongering and thieving snakes or face jail terms, but one feels a whole new level of revulsion when these people make statements to the effect that they, and they alone, are in a position to "save the economy" by "creating jobs." These statements are made by people who have done virtually everything in their power to destroy the American economy over the last few decades, but who have now proclaimed themselves to be our saviors. Only the most naïve and unlearned among us could possibly be falling for the idea that a bunch of self-serving politicians, bureaucrats and bankers are going to "save" us from problems they have caused.

On its face, the idea that politicians, bureaucrats, and bankers could "save" the economy is laughable. These are people, after all, who live exclusively at our expense. That is, these are people whose entire livelihoods are dependent upon taking money away from productive people and spending it on themselves and their favorite wasteful projects. It's true that they do not all share the same ideas about how to spend the money they take from us. Some prefer to use it to blow up innocent people in foreign lands, while others simply want to take our hard-earned money without our consent and hand it over to other people. The bankers, on the other hand, merely content themselves with printing vast amounts of new money out of thin air that they either hand over to the Treasury Department, or gift to their other banker-buddies to lend out at a profit at our expense. Nevertheless, it should be crystal clear that these people do not actually produce anything themselves (except the bankers, who are very skilled counterfeiters of money). They take money from us through taxation and inflation, (and threaten us with severe punishments if we refuse to obey), and then spend every last penny of it – and more – on war, socialized boondoggles, and welfare. These are the people who would have us believe that they can "save" the economy? How exactly would they accomplish such a thing? More taxes, more idiotic socialized projects, more war, and more newly-printed green paper? Do these actions really seem likely to produce a vibrant and healthy economy, or do they seem more like the actions undertaken by the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.?

They would also very much like for us to believe that they are the only people in the world capable of "creating jobs" in the United States. A more ridiculous idea would be hard to find. Again, these people are only in the business of taking money from productive people, and either wasting it entirely (e.g., war), keeping it themselves, or giving it to other people (e.g., entitlement programs, foreign aid, and paychecks for bureaucrats). As such, any actions undertaken by these people will necessarily depend for funding upon those who are forced to pay taxes; namely, the increasingly-dwindling group of productive people who have not yet lost their jobs in the private sector. Does it really seem possible that this sort of parasitism on the productive people of the United States really can create jobs that produce the things that people actually want? If socialized job creation is the only way out of this economic quagmire, as the politicians would have us believe, then why don't they socialize the entire economy? If it were indeed the case that the federal government can "create" productive jobs better than the private sector, then why don't they take over all aspects of the American economy, and we can all live happily ever-after in a brave, new, socialized America where everyone is enslaved, I mean employed, by the State.

And don't think for a moment that the politicians and bureaucrats are themselves going to help the productive people shoulder this onerous tax burden. On the contrary, politicians and bureaucrats do not actually pay taxes. As Murray Rothbard has noted in this regard:

"If a bureaucrat receives a salary of $5,000 a year and pays $1,000 in 'taxes' to the government, it is quite obvious that he is simply receiving a salary of $4,000 and pays no taxes at all. The heads of the government have simply chosen a complex and misleading accounting device to make it appear that he pays taxes in the same way as any other men making the same income. The UN's arrangement, whereby all its employees are exempt from any income taxation, is far more candid."

Hence, while Mr. Obama is fond of telling us that "we" are going to have to get out of this recession together, what he really means is that those of us who are employed in productive private lines of work in this country are going to have to hand over more and more of our hard-earned money to those people in this country who pay no taxes at all; namely, men like Mr. Obama himself and the rest of the fat, parasitic political and bureaucratic class that infests this country.

Some of the more shameless of the political class in this country, or their academic lackeys, have even tried to convince us that the trillions of dollars they are wasting in Iraq and Afghanistan are going to help us get out of this depression. They have been taking our money and blowing it up in these two dreadfully poor countries year after year, and they would like for us to believe that this senseless destruction of wealth is going to make us richer. Often known as "Military Keynesians," this group is perhaps more aptly described as the "kill ourselves rich" crowd. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that neither you nor I are made better off when the federal government steals our money, hands it over to Lockheed Martin to purchase bombs, and then uses those bombs to blow up Pakistani civilians. The only people who benefit from this forceful expropriation of our money and indifferent murder are the merchants of death occupying lucrative posts at Lockheed, Blackwater and the Pentagon.

What the political and bureaucratic classes are actually accomplishing very well, however, is creating a veritable army of angry men whose lives have been destroyed by the federal government. Many have lost their jobs, thanks to the collapse of the largest artificial economic boom in American history – a boom that was directly caused by the actions of the federal government and the Fed. In addition, thanks to years of merciless and ceaseless money creation by the Fed, this army of men has found that their savings purchase fewer and fewer goods over time. This depreciation of the dollar will inexorably increase astronomically over the next few years as the massive amount of new money the Fed and treasury have already jointly printed, and are planning to print over the coming months and years, floods the system.

This army of angry men has very little to be optimistic about in the near future. At best, they might be able to keep their present jobs in the private sector – shouldering a heavier and heavier portion of the tax burden that funds the congress and president's wars and socialization schemes, while the value of their savings continues to erode into dust. Those who have lost their jobs might be permitted to work on Mr. Obama's "public works" projects, and thereby become virtual slaves to the whims of the political and bureaucratic classes. Many others will simply find it easier to start sucking at the state's teat in the form of unemployment insurance or food stamps, et cetera, and thereby lose all respect for themselves. One thing is certain for every member of this army of angry men, though; every single one of them will now find it very difficult, if not impossible, to carve out a living for himself, on his own terms, and without being at the complete mercy of politicians, bureaucrats, and bankers he has never even met. The age of the independent, responsible, and free American citizen is now dead.

The hour is fast approaching when each and every one of us will have to decide for ourselves whether we will try to fight this devastating government machine, or join it.


February 10, 2009


Mark R. Crovelli [send him mail] writes from Denver, Colorado.

Praxis: TactiPlane Packs

Also from strategypage.com we have this:

A Sweet Ride

February 10, 2009: SOCOM (Special Operations Command) held a competition for a new rucksack and selected the Mystery Ranch TactiPlane. This device weighs ten pounds and holds 113 liters (6,900 cubic inches) in three compartments. Some 80 percent of that is in the main compartment, with the smaller compartments above and below holding ten percent each. The TactiPlane was designed to be worn comfortably with body armor, using a small pad for the lower back, to aid in doing that comfortably. When worn without body armor, the TactiPlane allows for ventilation between back and pack.

SOCOM BALCS (Body Armor Load Carriage System) is a program striving to eliminate the problems created when current body armor (including the ballistic plate worn in the front and back) is used by a soldier carrying lots of different types of equipment. BALCS is trying to achieve some standards, so that manufacturers of the armor, rucksacks and other carrying devices, do not work at cross purposes. As is usually the case, the army and marines are watching the BALCS program for solutions to identical problems their troops are having.

Praxis: Gloves

From strategypage.com we have this:

My son likes Hellstorm gloves

The Hand Job

February 8, 2009: Over the past half century, new developments in fabrics (like Kevlar and fire resistant cloth) have led to the widespread use of "tactical gloves" by infantry. Hands are incredibly important, and very vulnerable to injury. The troops have realized that one of the many important jobs they have is to seek maximum protection for their hands.

These gloves, which cost $50-100 a pair, protect you from fire, knives (and other stuff that can cut your hand), noxious chemicals, rope burns, cold and slipperiness. Reinforcements in the knuckles protect you from hard knocks there, and the entire glove benefits from the experience of thousands of users over the decades. Once troops start using tactical gloves, they wonder how they ever got along without them. The gloves are also used by prison guards, swat teams, hunters, mountain climbers and anyone else who puts their hands in harm's way. There are many specialized models for specific jobs, or simply to satisfy individual tastes.

US Currency to be Replaced

Got this from Pete at WRSA who doesn't know the precise provenance of it. All I can say is the guy who did this bit of photoshopping probably sees the future pretty clearly.

Insolvent

The link is here. I have reprinted the enture story because of its importance.

Large U.S. banks on edge of insolvency, experts say

By Steve Lohr

Friday, February 13, 2009

Some of the large banks in the United States, according to economists and other finance experts, are like dead men walking.

A sober assessment of the growing mountain of losses from bad bets, measured in today's marketplace, would overwhelm the value of the banks' assets, they say. The banks, in their view, are insolvent.

None of the experts' research focuses on individual banks, and there are certainly exceptions among the 50 largest banks in the country. Nor do consumers and businesses need to fret about their deposits, which are insured by the U.S. government. And even banks that might technically be insolvent can continue operating for a long time, and could recover their financial health when the economy improves.

But without a cure for the problem of bad assets, the credit crisis that is dragging down the economy will linger, as banks cannot resume the ample lending needed to restart the wheels of commerce. The answer, say the economists and experts, is a larger, more direct government role than in the Treasury Department's plan outlined this week.

The Treasury program leans heavily on a sketchy public-private investment fund to buy up the troubled mortgage-backed securities held by the banks. Instead, the experts say, the government needs to plunge in, weed out the weakest banks, pour capital into the surviving banks and sell off the bad assets.

It is the basic blueprint that has proved successful, they say, in resolving major financial crises in recent years. Such forceful action was belatedly adopted by the Japanese government from 2001 to 2003, by the Swedish government in 1992 and by Washington in 1987 to 1989 to overcome the savings and loan crisis.

"The historical record shows that you have to do it eventually," said Adam Posen, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "Putting it off only brings more troubles and higher costs in the long run."

Of course, the Obama administration's stimulus plan could help to spur economic recovery in a timely manner and the value of the banks' assets could begin to rise.

Absent that, the prescription would not be easy or cheap. Estimates of the capital injection needed in the United States range to $1 trillion and beyond. By contrast, the commitment of taxpayer money is the $350 billion remaining in the financial bailout approved by Congress last fall.

Meanwhile, the loss estimates keep mounting.

Nouriel Roubini, a professor of economics at the Stern School of Business at New York University, has been both pessimistic and prescient about the gathering credit problems. In a new report, Roubini estimates that total losses on loans by American financial firms and the fall in the market value of the assets they hold will reach $3.6 trillion, up from his previous estimate of $2 trillion.

Of the total, he calculates that American banks face half that risk, or $1.8 trillion, with the rest borne by other financial institutions in the United States and abroad.

"The United States banking system is effectively insolvent," Roubini said.

For its part, the banking industry bridles at such broad-brush analysis. The industry defines solvency bank by bank, and uses the value of a bank's assets as they are carried on its books rather than the market prices calculated by economists.

"Our analysis shows that the banks have varying degrees of solvency and does not reveal that any institution is insolvent," said Scott Talbott, senior vice president of government affairs at the Financial Services Roundtable, a trade group whose members include the largest banks.

Edward Yingling, president of the American Bankers Association, called claims of technical insolvency "speculation by people who have no specific knowledge of bank assets."

Roubini's numbers may be the highest, but many others share his rising sense of alarm. Simon Johnson, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, estimates that the United States banks have a capital shortage of $500 billion. "In a more severe recession, it will take $1 trillion or so to properly capitalize the banks," said Johnson, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

At the end of January, the IMF raised its estimate of the potential losses from loans and other credit securities originated in the United States to $2.2 trillion, up from $1.4 trillion last October. Over the next two years, the IMF estimated, United States and European banks would need at least $500 billion in new capital, a figure more conservative than those of many economists.

Still, these numbers are all based on estimates of the value of complex mortgage-backed securities in a very uncertain economy. "At this moment, the liabilities they have far exceed their assets," said Posen of the Peterson institute. "They are insolvent."

Yet, as Posen and other economists note, there are crucial issues of timing and market psychology that surround the discussion of bank solvency. If one assumes that current conditions reflect a temporary panic, then the value of the banks' distressed assets could well recover over time. If not, many banks may be permanently impaired.

"We won't know what the losses are on these mortgage-backed securities, and we won't until the housing market stabilizes," said Richard Portes, an economist at the London Business School.

Raghuram Rajan, a professor of finance and an economist at the University of Chicago graduate business school, draws the distinction between "liquidation values" and those of calmer times, or "going concern values." In a troubled time for banks, Rajan said, analysts are constantly scrutinizing current and potential losses at the banks, but that is not the norm.

"If they had to sell these securities today, the losses would be far beyond their capital at this point," he said. "But if the prices of these assets will recover over the next year or so, if they don't have to sell at distress prices, the banks could have a new lease on life by giving them some time."

That sort of breathing room is known as regulatory forbearance, essentially a bet by regulators that time will help heal banking troubles. It has worked before.

In the 1980s, during the height of the Latin American debt crisis, the total risk to the nine money-center banks in New York was estimated at more than three times the capital of those banks. The regulators, analysts say, did not force the banks to value those loans at the fire-sale prices of the moment, helping to avert a disaster in the banking system.

In the current crisis, experts warn, banks need to get rid of bad assets quickly. The Treasury's public-private investment fund is an effort to do that.

But many economists and other finance experts say that the government may soon have to move in and take on troubled assets itself to resolve the credit crisis. Then, they say, the government could have the patience to wait for the economy to improve.

Initially, that would put more taxpayer money on the line, but in the end it might reduce overall losses. That is what happened during the savings and loan crisis, when the troubled assets, mostly real estate, were seized by the Resolution Trust Corporation, a government-owned asset management company, and sold over a few years.

The eventual losses, an estimated $130 billion, were far less than if the hotels, office buildings and residential developments had been sold immediately.

"The taxpayer money would be used to acquire assets, and behind most of those securities are mortgages, houses, and we know they are not worthless," Portes said.

Give 'Em a Piece of Your Mind

Pete at WRSA used this illustration to accompany my re-issue of The Window War. I LIKE it.

Praxis: Blizzard Survival Sleeping Bag

Just received this email from cybr-c, drawing my attention to an intriguing product:

I don't know about anyone else...but I'm always looking for something that is light and don't take up much room in my ruck. This is an item that I think I will order and add to my deployment gear. Let me know what you think?

Now the first thing that strikes me as a boy who was born in Michigan and raised in Ohio is that a system that is "equal to a medium weight regular sleeping bag" is not going to save you from a blizzard. But that marketing hyperbole aside, it still could be of use. I also note that it is available in OD Green.



Are there any Three Percenters out there who have experience with this system? Please post your evaluation(s) if you do.

Mike
III

Blizzard Survival Sleeping Bag

$34.95

Tested and recommended by renowned mountaineer and Wilderness EMT Jon Bentley!

The Blizzard Survival Bag is a full-sized sleeping bag in a pack the size of a video cassette, providing total warmth and shelter – anywhere, at any time. It’s made from our unique Reflexcell™ material, which blocks heat loss more effectively than any other thermal emergency product. The bag also contains elastic, causing it to hug the body, giving a great feeling of warmth and security.

How does it work?

Reflexcell™, the base material for Blizzard’s unique products, has major advantages over existing materials and is revolutionizing emergency thermal protection.

Reflexcell™ utilizes cellular construction to trap warm air. Its elasticity draws the material to the body and reduces cold spaces and heat loss by convection. Its silvered surfaces block heat loss by radiation. It is also completely waterproof and windproof.

Reflexcell’s™ greatest strength is that it can be compressed into the tiniest of packages and stored indefinitely without damaging its performance.

Benefits

Very warm
Light weight
Compact vacuum packaging
Durable and reusable
Waterproof
Windproof
Versatile
Adaptable
Performance

Warmth: 8 Togs – equal to a medium weight regular sleeping bag
Weather Protection: Fully waterproof and windproof
Storage: Bags may be stored indefinitely, and are not affected by temperature or moisture, wither during storage or in use.
Portability: The bags’ small size and light weight make them easy to carry, whether as personal safety equipment, or for rapid deployment in emergencies involving large groups of people
Reusability: Bags can be reused many times without loss of performance
Specifications
Vacuum Pack Dimensions: 8.4 x 4.3 x 1.2 in
Volume: 0.2 gal
Weight: 12.3 oz
Size unpacked: 6.9 ft (fully stretched)

Features
- Top may be closed to form hood
- Draw cord with spring toggle
- Fits fully clothed large adult
- Reusable

Praxis: More from The Trainer on 4GW.

After I posted "Fourth Generation Warfare (NOT for Dummies)" below, The Trainer sent me this:

Along those lines, to help our group get more in line with 4GW & MW concepts & principles, I've excerpted some highlights from the Marine's FMFM-1 (Draft) 9/2008 on Light Infantry Training & Ops. These guide us as we develop and conduct our training.

Highlights from USMC FMFM-1 (Draft) 9 Sep 08

As applied to __________ Training


Concepts:

• The light infantryman characterizes himself by his mental resourcefulness and physical toughness.

• Hard physical training convinces members that they are able to overcome the most difficult situations that combat could present.

• LI do not feel defeated when surrounded, isolated or confronted by superior forces. They are able to perform their duties for long periods of time without any type of comfort or logistical support, obtaining what they need from the land or the enemy.

• LI are neither physically nor psychologically tied to the rear (supply trains or ‘secure areas’) by the necessity to maintain open lines of communication. This attitude of self-confidence provides LI a great psychological advantage over its enemies.

• LI employs a decentralized command philosophy and at a high tempo. An unpredictable ambush mentality and reluctance to follow a specified method is the essence of LI. This ambush mentality generates other secondary, but distinctive, characteristics. Among them are the ability and speed with which LI adapts to the terrain in which it operates.

• LI exploits adverse environmental conditions by turning terrain roughness to its advantage, using the terrain as a shield, a weapon and a source of supplies at the same time. As a result, LI has an incomparable superiority in those terrains that restrict Regular or Line Infantry operations (especially mechanized and armored forces), usually allowing it to face and defeat larger and better equipped enemy forces.

• This gives LI a distinctive operational versatility, being able to operate alone in restricted terrain or in a symbiotic relationship with line units. Light infantry easily adapts itself to all types of operations, and faces the natural evolution of war with no need to modify substantially the way it operates. This characteristic determines that LI is the only type of force able successfully to counter the challenge imposed by the current transition toward the Fourth Generation of War.

Command & Control (C2):

• LI operations require both commanders and subordinates to perform their duties in a highly decentralized environment.

• Command requires the wide use of mission-type orders, in which the commander’s intent provides guidance that enables subordinates to exercise initiative and make decisions in the absence of detailed orders.

• LI Command & Control relies on top-down vision, low-level planning, and decentralized decision-making allowing timely and effective response to the changing and chaotic situations that are usually faced in combat, enabling them to maintain a faster tempo than the enemy and get inside his OODA loop.

• Light infantry’s decentralized C2 is not feasible without quality leaders at all levels, especially at the lower levels.

• Leaders share the same shortages and hardships with their men and lead their teams from the front.

Training:

• Goal: Build teams able to operate in small, often separated, groups in a decentralized environment and under unfavorable conditions of terrain, weather and friendly and/or enemy situations for long periods of time.

• To achieve the goal, all personnel, regardless of age, rank, or time in service, must undergo the same training.

• Top Priority: Develop a LI mindset. To do this, training must be heavily oriented toward free-play field exercises, performed in the most austere conditions possible; with the balance set between a good learning environment and strict absence of any kind of comfort for the troops.

• Training must also include a rigorous professional reading program to develop the intellectual side of the LI. A good program will focus on enhancing critical and integrative thinking capabilities, encouraging initiative, and developing the required professional judgment to support LI leaders’ decentralized decision-making.

• The ability to conduct long, fast, demanding foot marches between engagements is a trademark of LI. If mindset is LI’s main weapon, its legs are real combat multipliers. However, also integrate other skills that light infantrymen must show in the field, such as land navigation, combat first aid, close combat, etc.

• Development in mastery in arms throughout all members. All LI must be able to employ and maintain all of their units’ weapons effectively; training should also ensure proficiency in enemy weapons’ handling and the ability to drive all kind of vehicles.

• Training will include the development of superb fieldcraft and camouflage, the ability to construct and breach simple obstacles, and survive in all type of restrictive terrain.

So, Did They Get These From American Gun Shows?

"Several of the grenades used in the three recent attacks failed to go off because of a fault in the device or incorrect arming." -- The Bandidos forgot to read the directions.

Courtesy of Statfor we have this.

Mexico, U.S.: A New Weapon in the Cartel Arsenal

February 10, 2009 | 2145 GMT

Grenades used in three recent attacks in Monterrey, Mexico, and Pharr, Texas, all originated from the same lot delivered from South Korea, a Stratfor source has indicated.

That the grenade used in the third attack reportedly came from Mexico indicates that in addition to the well-known path of weapons flowing from the United States into Mexico, arms also are flowing from Mexico into the United States.

The first of the three attacks targeted the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey, Mexico. Gunmen rammed their car into the consulate’s front gates at night in October 2008, firing automatic rifles and tossing a grenade that failed to detonate. In the second incident, again in Monterrey, gunmen attacked a local TV station on Jan. 12 in an attempt to intimidate the news agency into cutting back reporting on cartel activities. The feared group Los Zetas, one of Mexico’s deadliest and most professional drug-trafficking organizations which originally came from the ranks of Mexico’s special forces reportedly was behind both attacks.

In the third attack, three Hispanic men on Jan. 31 tossed a grenade into a night club near Pharr, Texas, a border town about 140 miles from Monterrey but the grenade did not explode. The attackers might have been targeting three off-duty police officers who were in the club at the time. Police are still searching for the culprits, whom a Stratfor source has indicated might have belonged to the Bandidos motorcycle gang. The Bandidos have ties to Mexican cartels, as well as a reputation for violence.

The Bandidos gang and groups like it are known to have used improvised explosive devices like pipe bombs. These are less reliable and less effective than military-grade grenades even though several of the grenades used in the three recent attacks failed to go off because of a fault in the device or incorrect arming.

Mexico’s military is known to use South Korean grenades. High levels of corruption in Mexico make it very likely that members of the Mexican military sold the grenades to Los Zetas. While internal investigations might be able to plug some of the leaks that permitted this transaction, cartels’ willingness to pay top dollar for such weapons translates into a huge temptation for poorly paid military personnel. The illegal sale of grenades and other weapons and ordnance, like armor-piercing rounds, to the cartels can therefore be expected to continue.

Gangs north of the border are known to collaborate closely with cartels in Mexico in drug trafficking, human trafficking and kidnapping. While the flow of arms from north to south with the assistance of gangs on the U.S. side has been well-documented, the flow of arms from south to north, specifically grenades, is a new discovery.

U.S. officials already have expressed concerns of being out-gunned by well-armed Mexican killing squads that use high-powered, automatic weapons. The addition of grenades to the arsenals of gangs north of the border represents even more of a threat to U.S. law enforcement.

In 1998, the Federation of American scientists reported in a paper entitled "Small Arms Trade" that:

Theft or capture of state security forces’ arms is a major source of black-market supply around the world. The U.S. government rarely conducts end-use checks on weapons it has exported, greatly facilitating the diversion of weapons. Between 1989 and 1993 the State Department approved 108 licenses for the export of over $34 million of small arms to Mexico, but it performed only three follow-up inspections to ensure that the weapons were in the intended hands.

Well, duh. Maybe the Bandidos got their hand grenades from the same place these mokes got their Barrett M82s:

Mexican army troops on parade in Mexico City.

One thing for sure -- it wasn't off the table at an American gun show.

Praxis: Fourth Generation Warfare (NOT for Dummies)

Fourth Generation Warfare Goals:

1. Survival.

2. To convince the enemy’s political decision makers that their goals are either unachievable or too costly for the perceived benefit.

-- Wikipedia.

Folks,

I have received over the past few months more than a few emails asking me to define the term "Fourth Generation Warfare." Today, with a H/T to Larry at KABA for reminding me by posting this link, (http://www.d-n-i.net/dni/strategy-and-force-employment/fourth-generation-warfare-manuals/), I'm going to give you a brief outline of 4GW and then the links to pursue other reading.

(You will note that throughout I am going to show the clickable link, followed by the web address in full. That is because I distribute the most important of my blog posts via email to a largely different set of readers, who in turn forward them to others. As the links don't always make it through this process, the addresses spelled out will enable even the recipient at the far edge of the known Internet galaxy to get back to the link.)

The first question that most folks raise is, "what were the other three generations?" William S. Lind provides the best short description in this article, (http://www.lewrockwell.com/lind/lind26.html), The Four Generations of Modern War from 2004. An excerpt:

The First Generation of modern war began with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which ended the Thirty Years War. It also marked the state’s assumption of a monopoly on war; thereafter, war became something waged by states, for raison d’etat, with state armies and navies doing the fighting. The First Generation ran from 1648 to about the time of the American Civil War, and it was characterized, on the whole, by a battlefield of order. The battlefield of order created a military culture of order, which endures to this day.

And there’s the rub. For around the middle of the 19th century, the battlefield of order began to break down. Ever since, state militaries have had to grapple with a growing contradiction between their internal culture of order and the external reality of an increasingly disordered battlefield.

The Second and Third Generations represent two different approaches to that problem. Second Generation war was developed by the French Army during and after World War I, and is best summed up with the French saying, "The artillery conquers, the infantry occupies." Also known as firepower/attrition warfare, Second Generation war maintained the First Generation culture of order. Decision-making was centralized and hierarchical; orders were detailed and controlling, to permit synchronization of all arms; time was not particularly important; and success was measured by comparative body counts. Second Generation armed forces focus inward on methods, processes and procedures, prize obedience over initiative (initiative and synchronization are not compatible) and depend on imposed discipline. The American Army and Marine Corps learned Second Generation war from the French during the First World War and still practice it today, with exceptions based on individual commanders.

Third Generation war, also known as maneuver warfare, was developed by the German Army in World War I; by 1918, Blitzkrieg was conceptually complete, lacking only the tanks necessary for operational mobility. The Prussian/German roots of Third Generation war go back earlier, to the Scharnhorst reforms that followed Prussia’s defeat by Napoleon. One of those reforms changed what was required of a Prussian officer; instead of being responsible for obeying orders, he became responsible for getting the result the situation required regardless of orders (in 19th century war games, it was common for junior Prussian officers to be given problems that could only be solved by disobeying orders). This in turn created a military culture that was focused outward, on the enemy, the situation and the result the situation demanded instead of inward on rules, orders and processes. In effect, Prussia had broken with the First Generation culture of order.

The new Third Generation tactics developed by the Germans in World War I were the first non-linear tactics. On the defense, the objective became sucking the enemy in, then cutting him off, rather than holding a line. On the offensive, the attack flowed like water through the enemy’s defenses, always seeking the weakest point to penetrate, then rolling him up from his own rear forward. Operationally as well as tactically the goal was usually encirclement. Speed replaced firepower as the most important tool, and dislocation, mental as well as physical, was more important than attrition. Culturally, not only was the German Army outward-focused, it prized initiative over obedience and it depended on self-discipline rather than imposed discipline.

Much of the American military reform movement of the 1970s, 80s and early 90s was an attempt to move the American armed forces from the Second to the Third Generation. While the Marine Corps formally adopted maneuver warfare as doctrine in the 1990s, most of what the Marine Corps does remains Second Generation. The other American services remain almost wholly Second Generation, to the frustration of many junior officers.

Fourth Generation war is the greatest change since the Peace of Westphalia, because it marks the end of the state’s monopoly on war. Once again, as before 1648, many different entities, not states, are fighting war. They use many different means, including "terrorism" and immigration, not just formal armies. Differences between cultures, not just states, become paramount, and other cultures will not fight the way we fight. All over the world, state militaries are fighting non-state opponents, and almost always, the state is losing. State militaries were designed to fight other state militaries like themselves, and against non-state enemies most of their equipment, tactics and training are useless or counterproductive.

Ok, so now we have the basics. Attrition warfare, bad. Maneuver warfare, much better. 4GW is maneuver warfare adapted to the abilities and resources of the weak.

Now, there is a body of work known as "The Canon of 4GW," which is a list of seven books that cover the subject in depth. These are:

The Enlightened Soldiers by C.E. White

The Seeds of Disaster by Robert Doughty

Stormtroop Tactics by Robert Gudmundsson

Command or Control? by Martin Samuels

The Breaking Point by Robert Doughty

The Transformation of War by Martin Creveld

It is not necessary to go broke buying books to understand 4GW however. Thanks to the folks at Defense and the National Interest, (http://www.d-n-i.net/dni/about/) we have many important documents of 4GW posted where they can easily be accessed.

DNI's stated purpose is "to foster debate on the roles of the U.S. armed forces in the post-Cold War era and on the resources devoted to them. The ultimate purpose is to help create a more effective national defense against the types of threats we will likely face during the first decades of the new millennium. Contributors to this site are, with a few exceptions, active/reserve, former, or retired military. They often combine a knowledge of military theory with the practical experience that comes from trying their ideas in the field."

The particular article that Larry at KABA drew our interest to (first link above) is this:

4GW Manuals

Produced by the Fourth Generation Warfare Seminar at the Marine Corps Base, Quantico:

1. FMFM 1A, Fourth Generation Warfare, Draft 4.3, 10 February 2009 (598 KB PDF) (http://www.d-n-i.net/fcs/pdf/fmfm_1-a.pdf)

2. FMFM 1-3A, A Tactical Handbook for Counterinsurgency and Police Operations, Draft 1.0, 12 August 2008 (158 KB PDF) (http://www.d-n-i.net/fcs/pdf/fmfm_1-3a_police.pdf)

3. FMFM 1A-3A, A Book of 4GW Tactical Decision Games, 3 October 2008 (95 pp, 2.5 MB PDF) (http://www.d-n-i.net/fcs/pdf/4gw_tdg_manual_9-2008.pdf)

4. Light Infantry, 24 September 2008 (495 KB PDF) (http://www.d-n-i.net/fcs/pdf/light_infantry_for_4gw.pdf)

The original paper, “The Changing Face of War: Into the Fourth Generation,” from the 1989 Marine Corps Gazette. (http://www.d-n-i.net/fcs/4th_gen_war_gazette.htm)

For other 4GW resources, please visit our 4GW Pages:

4GW Theory (http://www.d-n-i.net/dni/strategy-and-force-employment/fourth-generation-warfare-theory/)

Other 4GW Articles (http://www.d-n-i.net/dni/strategy-and-force-employment/fourth-generation-warfare-articles/)


So go to the site and the various links and learn about 4GW. Small unit commanders whose ambitions are not so lofty will find more of immediate value in previously recommeneded works on maneuver warfare such as Poole's The Last Hundred Yards.

But mind this: the side that wins the upcoming American civil war will be the one that best understands and implemets the principles of 4GW.

The New McCarthyism Strikes Again

Mission Bay (San Diego, CA) students walkout of school last spring to protest the school’s Marine ROTC program

Well, folks, here we go again. Hoplophobia, the new McCarthyism, has claimed more victims. This time it is the kids of the JROTC air rifle program in San Diego schools. Read below. Good grief.

Mike
III

SD Unified Says 'No' To JROTC Rifle Training
Feb 11, 2009

Ana Tintocalis

A group of San Diego teenagers successfully convinced the San Diego Unified school board yesterday to dismantle the district's Junior ROTC air-rifle program. The on-campus program has been training young cadets how to shoot for decades. KPBS Reporter Ana Tintocalis has more.

The district's Junior ROTC air-rifle marksmanship program has a long and distinguished history in the San Diego Unified District. But now the program has been shot down. That's the result of a one-year, student-driven effort.

The program first came under fire last year when JROTC officials introduced air-rifle shooting ranges on the campuses of Lincoln and Mission Bay high schools.
Students, teachers and parents were outraged. Many didn't realize on-campus shooting practice even existed in the district.

Jonathon Flores is a student at Lincoln High. He urged the school board to dismantle the program because it sends the wrong message. That message is especially relevant in his South San Diego community, where gun violence killed two classmates this year.

Flores: The Lincoln High community has been devastated by the amount of violent shootings that have taken place in the community. Should we sit here and wait until another incident occurs in order for us to take action? As a student, I expect this school board will make it a priority to understand that our books are the ultimate weapon to succeed, not guns.

The Air-Rifle program is an after-school sports activity. Students travel across the country to compete in tournaments. Some even get scholarships.

JROTC cadets, their mothers and military veterans did their best to explain why the marksmanship program is so important to them and their campuses.

Mark Mendoza is a marksmanship coach. He says shooting teachers discipline, patience and respect.

Mendoza: I can vouch that JROTC doesn't teach anything related to tactical warfare, combat, or even self-defense. There's likely more violence occuring at fencing or wrestling practice at the gym. In fact JROTC cadets are more peaceful than their fellow students.

Seventeen-year-old Irving Mota goes to Lincoln High School. He says if the school board bans rifle training, they should also eliminate other sports.

Mota: A helmet for a football team, something that the campus allows us to carry around, that can be a weapon. A lacrosse stick, that can be a weapon. A skateboard, that as long as you're not riding but can carry it around, that can be a weapon too. Should we ban those things too?

But in the end, the school board voted 3-2 to dismantle the program. School trustee Richard Barrera applauds students on both sides of the issue for their activism, but says banning any type of gun on campus is the right thing to do.

Barrera: The students here are standing up for something bigger than just individual programs that are going on in our schools. You're standing up and saying enough, that you're not going to sit by and simply allow a society that produces that level of violence as it does. You're not going to do it.

Jonathon Flores is a senior at Lincoln High. And he says the vote is a huge win for his community.

Flores:There are things you can change in the community. There are policies that you would never thought you could change, I've actually done it. Now that I've done it, I feel that motivation to do more.

JROTC leadership classes will remain in the district, but the on-campus rifle training is now gone. In doing so, San Diego Unified follows in the footsteps of the San Francisco and Chicago public school districts which banned the program several years ago.

Ana Tintocalis, KPBS News.