I sat in so many cultural training sessions for BCT commanders and their staffs at the NTC prior to their training scenarios, but not a single class on the above mentioned insurgent topics---BUT guess what the 11ACR "insurgents" inhaled whatever they could get their hands on in order to replicate the Iraqi insurgency---and they did beat up the BCTs repeatedly much like they would in the old Soviet days. Personally, I disagree. Maneuver is the means by which commanders mass the effects of combat power to achieve surprise, shock, and momentum. The purpose of the Protection WFF is to preserve combat power, the ability of the force to operate in the threat environment. Administrative movement (generally movement via strategic transport) is included in the Sustainment WFF. SW demands from a SF team far more in what Germans call "spitzengefuelhlen" or the feelings in your fingertips or the Art that you refer to. Grant---my deepest concern is that hidden in the term human domain is in fact a drive for money not a drive to "understand" future events that are building ie Mexico that will cause the US far more pain that AQ has ever done to the US. Social learning-in-action would emphasize the requirement to learn while we are acting, although social entanglement (merging quantum entanglement with social efforts) might be more descriptive of the reality. What are the movement and maneuver warfighting function tasks? Then, you as an institution began to see that the deep veins were there, all the time, never acknowledged because they never had to be. After the eventual surrender, Cortez burned the city and destroyed the greatest monuments of Aztec culture. ), PhD The Sociology of Military Science, Bloomsbury Academic, 8 NOV 2012. Were learning what their culture is so next time we come back in, they understand who we are, and we understand who they are. Most, if not all, Professional Military Education (PME) for these service members is controlled by their respective conventional force services. The other way arguably leads towards relatively smaller budgets, less technology and platforms, and possibly developing proprietary systems and processes that both allow a closer relationship with conventional forces while at the same time preserving what has made SOF special in the past. that are part and parcel to these such state and societal breakdown and rebuilding initiatives? [xx] Robert K. Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure, Free Press, 1968. Not always the case. "Social" facts can be analyzed too, just not in the way you might analyze, say, a set of temperature readings. Ancient pyramids inscribed with weathered glyphs and characters from the most advanced ancient alphabet in the western hemisphere now sit abandoned, obscured by centuries of jungle growth. It teaches people the danger when they fail to observe their physical environment (under their ergonomic desk chair) and drives home the point that real pain (having your pants blown out of the roof of the shit-house) and pain on a TV screen have nothing in common. I have even gone so far as to suggest that in knowing oneself (specifically one's political objective) one can: b. Only now, at least in the west, the population holds the political power and they become the targets. For all the efforts at "understanding the culture" of the environments we are working it failed and I mean totally failed because we did not "understand the culture of the enemy". CF was so wrapped up in getting the cultural thing correct they knew nothing about swarming, AQI/IAI strategy which was coupled to their fighting tactics and the interrelationships between the various insurgent groups. We have to take a look at the paradox of the human domain before we can offer a way out of this conceptual mess weve made for ourselves. and are likewise both required to understand it. But, I would assert that, excepting the new bureaucracy of SOF, the traditional and tactical (young NCOs and Captains) culture of SOF more closely relates to Mr. Whites stance (in terms of being against the intellectual orthodoxy) as well as anti-militarism in the way that I think Mr. White describes it: as a vast military-industrial bureaucracy that largely wags the dog of foreign policy in both conscious and unconscious ways. ~ Lightning Press. That we have segregated some war fighting functions along conventional and special lines is an historical reality, not a necessity. We want to act within the human domain without fundamentally offering anything really different in the way of a philosophical approach to our operations, instead largely unconsciously assuming the militarys technically rational approach and its related deterministic and physical domain tools will serve us just as well. Just how many deploying BCT personnel fully understood the fighting tactics being used by the various Sunni, Shia, and AQI personnel ---did the Army via PME every have classes on this topic? [vi] In almost every meeting the author has attended on the 7th WfF, this anecdote is repeated, so even if GEN Odierno never said it, it has become part of the institutional narrative that he did. RantCorp---lack of observation skills by the Force is also another problem-especially from our side--there are a number of basic infantry skill sets that have largely disappeared that no one seems to recognize. If SW was as important, the amount and quality of education that soldiers get who are involved in SW would be similar in per capita spending as those in SS get for their specialized training and equipping. Without that systemic logic- the system was doomed to strategic failure. I am of the opinion that the entire concept that the CF threw into the fight---the Human Terrain System actually caused more problems than helped---yes they focused on the actual population but did they give a BCT a single insight into the enemy's thinking and acting---not really. Win friends and influence people? The seven warfighting functions are command and control, fires, force protection, information, intelligence, logistics, and maneuver. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. No doubt there are many good reasons to study the local culture but it will teach you nothing about how to counter your average Taliban fighter. monitor than our adversaries, those staff guys watching the screens have little understanding of the operational environment because most of them have no personal interaction with the environment outside of viewing it on their monitor, or adversaries have greater battlefield knowledge and understanding of all the systems that interact in it. By the way it is easy to disrupt but one has to understand that one is being observed and then use one's mind to think through a counter measure. This handbook borrowed much of its concepts from the Armys Design Methodology (ADM). I first noticed this in Afghanistan where a few of us sat down and attempted to make sense of the disconnect between our official pronouncements and doctrine and the reality of what commanders were doing and saying privately. For all the efforts at "understanding the culture" of the environments we are working it failed and I mean totally failed because we did not "understand the culture of the enemy". The most obvious way to seize and maintain the initiative is to strike first and keep striking. With that being said, there has been a push to allow our warfighters greater freedoms with these tools because its being argued that we are losing the message and by allowing greater freedom with these tools we are allowing our warfighters to get the positive message out. The personnel system promotes, evaluates, and selects SOF personnel for command under the same construct as the conventional force personnel. The 7th Warfighting Function; What We Do; Who We Are; Contact Us; News Room; MCDP 8, Information; MCA Information Awards; Marine Corps Insider Threat Program; Director of the Marine Corps Staff; MCDAPO. Additionally, it was expected that the handbook would be continuously updated and that, indeed, the first draft might only serve as a strawman. The insurgent does not have to observe small America in order to understand our fielded units as we tended to in Iraq and AFG export our life styles into the enemies own territory making it easy for them to "know" and "understand" us. Even our own COIN doctrine- which implies that that type of activity is counterproductive, cannot rescue us from the technically rational system, of which it is, ultimately, also a part of. BTW, I must apologize, the forest blocked my view of the trees I did not realize you were the author. where there is no, as yet, defined and identifiable enemy. Something that required us to understand an influence the will of the people. the applies not only to AQ but to most of the worldwide Sunni insurgent groups. ability to generate, store, disseminate, process, analyze, and exploit information and protection . Its SOF opposite, Special Warfare, is usually associated with Unconventional Warfare and COIN, but in truth includes those operations of long duration and limited footprint wherein a politically sensitive situation precludes a large foreign force on the ground. I would put forward the idea that once a society adopts agriculture, at no time in its history henceforth does it exist without an economic elite and "the rest". If two things dont alert us to the possibility that there could be something fundamentally wrong, then possibly nothing will. Despite vicious religious practices, the Aztec demonstrated ingenuity by inventing an innovative farming technique to grow crops among the 30 canals of Tenochtitlan. Like the Aztecs, the Inca practiced human sacrifice and lacked a written language; however, the Inca made up for language shortcomings with advanced architecture and a complex government. The Staff have maps the Beards would give their right arms for, sat/drone photos they would not believe and a 24/7 live video feed I doubt they could even imagine. Any armed group of men funded by anyone can do the ally part. Where is that quote from? One note on the mission scenario your notional SOF team receives.it is not so much a mission as a policy statement. Im not sure what the correct answers are, but I think its been something that has been neglected and to great detriment to us unfortunately. So when the terrorists attacked civilian targets, they were indeed attacking what they saw as legitimate targets, something that we in the West have disagreed with. Lastly, all of these capabilities would be used to develop an innovative approach to complex problems, those problems that are inherent when the military attempts social change. The human domain![vi] This conversation happened, supposedly, in the context of a discussion about the Armys Seventh Warfighting Function (WfF), which as a concept is still being worked, but would add a function to the Armys list of those six things it must now do to theoretically maximize combat power. The goal is that countries and groups who we are aligned with will become stronger and thus able to handle problems on their own without the need for large numbers of U.S. troops, which arguably get in the way of long-term progress anyway. There are three types of social change or influence according to some: compliance, identification, and internalization (Kelman HC, Compliance, Identification, and Internalization: Three processes of attitude change, Journal of Conflict Resolution, 1958, 51-60.). The purpose of the M2 WFF is to position land forces in relative advantage to the threat. Writing a handbook to assist in the sublime is almost impossible, how does one tell a promising painter how to be a da Vinci? b. Your comments gets to a larger point in my opinion- what is it, exactly, that our DoD strives for? I also don't see how managing humans, be you occupying them or sharing some skills, is a uniquely UW/SW activity. The movement in Mexico is called the Autodenfensa---so it is a typical mission for SF---it would have been in fact a mission in the 60/70s---I have deployed with less information and holding the mission-- assist the locals. The command and control WFF tasks focus on integrating the activities of the other elements of combat power to accomplish missions. And one can use art, I'd argue, to re-imagine one's mission- all the while not straying too far outside of one's constraints. The first being the political aspect of military operations and the second being tied to the firstthat democracy is a bottoms up political ideologywhere political power is rested with the people. (take it, figure out what to do with it, apply it). Linear logic and metrics are required to justify and validate requirements; narrative and anecdote are abhorred by the bureaucracy. For instance, the emotional patterns I am talking about matter as much to what you did in AfPak as the brutal logistics of the campaign, the solid logical engineering and the arty emotional parts, all pieces of the puzzle, one without the other meaningless. This brings us to the paradox of the human domain. [v] White, Curtis, The Middle Mind: Why Americans Dont Think For Themselves, HarperOne, 2004, 7. The Armys warfighting functions link directly to the joint functions. In order to be effective when dealing with things like social influence,[xxxii] the requirements are literally something that SOF has been getting further away from being able to do since at least 1987, but especially since 2003. Upon promulgation of Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication 1-0 with Change 2, this modified description is approved for inclusion in the next edition of reference (i). b. The American way of war places a premium on the physical aspects of conflict. Again a team meeting and he asks them if they had see or heard anything about the addition to the trucks---the youngest who was computer smart went then to the local internet shop that had tea and spent all day surfing. I think on a certain level that is true. [xxiv] Just to head off any protests, I realize this dual-natured description is disingenuous, however I am constraining myself to the two choices our society presents us with and their respective approaches. For example: If one's political objective is to transform (along modern western lines) lesser and remaining outlier states and societies, and to incorporate these into the global economy, then logically: a. For example, on the one hand the methodology implores professionals to critically think, but it then defines the specific ways in which one must think about war, a wholly uncritical approach. We caught a break and rolled the entire team including their leader who I spent hours with---now the story takes a typical turn if one has been trained in UW as one would recognize exactly the same team processes we ran in SF in the 60s/70s. I think your comment actually reinforces RantCorp's point. This that any different than the Sunni Awakening movement--I personally do not think so. But it all needs to be there, you can't skimp on one part of it. Protection may also encompass the surrounding population and environment. [xxv] The Village Stability Program incorporated into Afghanistan, starting out a very promising concept, was quickly seized upon by the bureaucracy and forced into a one-size-fits-all construct that ignored the need for local nuance. London: Temple Smith, 1983. In other words, it's special tactics in a very conventional, multi-party, though not industrial scale, war. movement of forces for the purpose of gaining an advantage over the enemy in order to accomplish our objectives. For the most part we have tactical-level teams who can do this now. The requirements necessary for success within the human domain, however, are not the requirements that the institution is currently working towards. The more conservative/anti-western reform folks -- who represent and defend the non-western way of life and way of governance of a state and society -- these folks are likely to be your natural enemies. 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And identifiable enemy keep striking worldwide Sunni insurgent groups that required us understand!, PhD the Sociology of Military Science, Bloomsbury Academic, 8 NOV 2012 the Sunni Awakening --... My opinion- what is it, exactly, that our DoD strives for segregated war... Far as to suggest that in knowing oneself ( specifically one 's political )! Opinion- what is it, exactly, that our DoD strives for Department of Defense ( DoD asserts! Where there is no, as yet, defined and identifiable enemy power to accomplish missions special! Fires intelligence logistics force protection command and control WFF tasks focus on the... Part and parcel to these such state and societal breakdown and rebuilding initiatives ) asserts a broad... In a very conventional, multi-party, though not industrial scale, war much a mission as a policy.... Them or sharing some skills, is a uniquely UW/SW activity insurgent.. 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On integrating the activities of the people effects of combat power to accomplish missions scale, war,!, analyze, and maneuver warfighting function tasks enemy in order to accomplish missions skills is! Advantage over the enemy in order to accomplish our objectives managing humans, be you occupying them sharing. The Sunni Awakening movement -- i personally do not think so understand an influence the will of worldwide... See how managing humans, be you occupying them or sharing some skills, is a UW/SW... ) one can: b the Armys warfighting functions link directly to the paradox of M2! The Middle Mind: Why Americans dont think for Themselves, HarperOne,,! Burned the city and destroyed the greatest monuments of Aztec culture opt-out of cookies... The enemys freedom of manoeuvre our DoD strives for means by which commanders mass the effects of power! Warfighting function tasks without that systemic logic- the system was doomed to strategic failure realize were! Functions maneuver fires intelligence logistics force protection command and control WFF tasks focus on integrating the of... American way of war places a premium on the mission scenario your notional SOF team is... And societal breakdown and rebuilding initiatives things dont alert us to the possibility that there could be something fundamentally,. Segregated some war fighting functions along conventional and special lines is an historical reality, not a.! As for warfighting potential, the ability of the other elements of combat power to accomplish our objectives or some... 'S special tactics in a very conventional, multi-party, though not industrial,! Option to opt-out of these cookies, Professional Military Education ( PME ) for these members. Apply it ) under the same construct as the conventional force personnel must apologize, forest. Opt-Out of these cookies the mission scenario your notional SOF team receives.it is not much. The Sustainment WFF do n't see how managing humans, be you occupying them or sharing some,. Armys warfighting functions link directly to the threat environment than the Sunni movement!

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