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New Special Double Issue on the War Print Edition of CounterPunch Available Exclusively to Subscribers: The US vs. Iraq: the Thirteen Year War; The Sanctions That Killed; Bombing Iraq Every 3 Days Since the Ceasefire of 1991; What Would Gore Have Done?; The Rise of the Neocons; Israel's Proxy War Plan; Why Did It End So Quickly?; The Coming Occupation; Re-educating Iraqis, American-style; Those Reconstruction Contracts; Media Hawks; Christian Crusaders; Democratic Candidates and the War; Smart Bombs Go Haywire; Inside the Mind of Santorum; Gore Vidal on John Kerry; Thomas Pickering: the Bad Seed. Remember, the CounterPunch website is supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide web audience is soaring, with more than 60,000 visitors a day. This is inspiring news, but the work involved also compels us to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! Or Call Toll Free 1-800-840 3683 or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558

Recent Stories May 1, 2003 Jeffrey St. Clair Santorum: That's Latin for Asshole Iain Boal A May Day Message to the FCC: "We Are Many; They are Few" Diana Johnstone About Cuba Sam Hamod Killings at Al Fallujah, City of Mosques Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity Intelligence Fiasco Lee Sustar Greed Air: Airline Workers Agree to Pay Cuts, While Bosses Stuff Their Pockets Peter Linebaugh May Day at Kut and Kenthal Stew Albert Straight Shooters Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 5/01 Website of the Day South Bay Mobilization   April 30, 2003 Ashley Smith Under Uncle Sam's Thumb: a History of Washington's Occupations Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 4/30 Gary Leupp Shooting Schoolboys: Preliminary Thoughts on the Fallujah Massacre Robert Jensen Fighting Alienation in the USA Wayne Madsen The Four Horsemen of Propaganda Ahmad Faruqui Bush's Strategic Myopia About the Middle East Gabriel Kolko Iraq, the US and the End of the European Coalition Adolfo Perez Esquivel A Nobel Laureat's Letter to Bush: "You Talk of Freedom; You Detest Freedom"     April 29, 2003 Gary Leupp Disorder and Opportunity: the Results of the Iraq War Uri Avnery Don't Envy Abu-Mazen Anthony Gancarski Brush with the Law Mickey Z. POWs: Then and Now CounterPunch Wire How to Spin Israel on the Hill: Internal Lobbying Documents Robert Fisk Did the US Murder Journalists? Chris Floyd Bush Telegraphs His Punches on Syria Wayne Madsen About Those Iraqi Intelligence Documents Wallace Gagne Pilgrimage or Demolition Derby? Eliot Katz Playing Catch with Cracked Globes Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 4/29   April 28, 2003 Ann Harrison Fighting Back: Medical Marijuana Patients Sue Ashcroft Robert Jensen Lack of WMD Kills the Case for War Peter Phillips Total Information Control Ron Jacobs Get the US Out of Iraq and Its Military Out of Our Minds Mark Hand Peace Park: The Pentagon Solution to a Baseball Stadium Dilemma Linda S. Heard Repeat After Me: Iraq is Weapons Free Kurt Nimmo US Military Bases: the Spoils and Deceptions of War Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 4/28   April 26 / 27, 2003 Elaine Cassel The Other War: Bush, Ashcroft and the End of Civil Liberties Saul Landau Iraq War: a Policy of Christian and Jewish Fundamentalism William A. Cook Sharon Recruits US as Mercenaries Against Syria William S. Lind Now the Real War Starts John Chuckman In Jesus's Name: Franklin Graham's Christian Empire David MacMichael and Ray McGovern Ex-CIA Analysts on WMD: Where? Find? Plant? Gary Leupp Why the War on Iraq was (and Remains) Wrong Robert Sandels Cuba Crackdown: a Revolt Against Bush's National Security Strategy? CounterPunch Wire An Open Letter to Jerry Brown on Oakland Police Violence Against Peace Activists and Dock Workers Mickey Z. Our Ba'athists Anthony Gancarski Nader Plays Pullman Scott Handleman The Mumia Abu-Jamal Case in Its True Colors Claud Cockburn Evelyn Waugh's Ear Trumpet Poets' Basement Matt Simon, Sam Hamod, Hammond Guthrie and Stew Albert Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 4/26   April 25, 2003 David Vest It's Not the Oil; It's the Art! Steven Higgs All About Tucker Carlson Walt Brasch The Shock and Awe of American Ignorance Alexander Cockburn The Decline of American Journalism: the Case of Judy Miller Zeynep Toufe A Letter to the People of Iraq from an Anti-War Activist CounterPunch Wire Season of the Witch: Jeane Kirkpatrick Unbound Hammond Guthrie Springtime in Iraq Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 4/25 Website of the Day Having a Great Time, Wish You Were Here: Postcards from a War   April 24, 2003 Lois Whitman An Open Letter to Rumsfeld on the Child Detainees at Guantanamo Uri Avnery Abu vs. Abu: It's Not About Egos David Lindorff Day Care in the Name of National Security? About Those Kids in Camp X-Ray John Grebe Rev. Pat Robertson's Message in the Temple Dokhi Fassihian Monster.Com: Ethnic Cleansing on the Web? CounterPunch Wire Israeli Army Chief Threatens Peace Activists Sam Hamod Our Man in Baghdad Annie C. Higgins Do You Regret Being an American? Harold A. Gould Will They Hate Us Forever? Stew Albert Big Brother in Bed Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 4/24 Website of the Day Muscles Abroad   April 23, 2003 Anthony Gancarski When Young Mothers Die in Combat Chris Floyd Desolation Row: Bush's Barbarians Teach by Example Marjorie Cohn Tax the War Profiteers William Lind The Fourth Generation of Modern War Dave Marsh Nina Simone: Freedom Singer Binoy Kampmark Malayasia's America: the War on Iraq David Vest Who's Looting Whom? Standard Shaefer Super Imperialism: an Interview with Michael Hudson Andrew Rodman Lawn Poem Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 4/23 Website of the Day Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East   April 22, 2003 Edward Said The Appalling Consequences of the Iraq War are Now Clear Sam Hamod What's the Deal with This War? Kurt Nimmo Shi'a Will to Power Gary Leupp At last! The Necessary Evidence Carl Estabrook Oblivious Americans: They Distort, We Subside John Stanton Iran's Reza Pahlavi: a Puppet of the US and Israel? Ramzy Baroud What Else Hasn't Israel Told America? Steven Sherman About That Cuba Letter Wayne Madsen Bush's "Christian" Blood Cult Stew Albert Creep Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 4/22 Website of the Day Critical Media Literacy in Times of War   April 21, 2003 Elaine Cassel An Administration in Contempt Gary Leupp Easter Thoughts on Liberation, Jesus and Kanaka WaiWai Roger Witherspoon Why Michigan Needs Affirmative Action Uri Avnery At Midnight, a Knock on the Door Col. Dan Smith Early Lessons from Iraq Jo Freeman After the Protest Comes Politics Michael Berry The Friedman Absurdities Gray Brechin Hang Black Banners: Mourning the Cultural Loss Bob Riedel The Taliban from Texas Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 4/21   April 19, 2003 Gary Leupp The Rape of History Saul Landau Shop, Go to Church, Support Bush's War, Wait for Armageddon Michael J. Fellows Off With Their Heads: the Constitution According to Scalia Pablo Mukherjee Roadmap to Resistance Omar Barghouti Sharon's Bloody Beat Anthony Gancarski Tony Blair: the Most Powerful Man in the World Mickey Z. Animals: the Other Collateral Damage Will Potter When Police Attack Journalists William MacDougall America's In-Bedded Journalism Neve Gordon Haunted by History Adam Engel Wal-Mart and Peace Dr. Susan Block Art Bombs: American Libertines for Peace Poets' Basement Albert, Buono, Guthrie Steve Perry War Web Log 4/19 Song of the Weekend Baghdad to Basra   April 18, 2003 Uri Avnery Operation "Syrian Freedom": This One's Not About Oil Jorge Mariscal "They Died Trying to Become Students": the Future of Latinos in an Era of War and Occupation Mickey Z: Coalition of the Unindicted: Only Losers Get Tried for War Crimes Hussein Ibish Syria and the Road to World War IV Reza Ladjevardian Tarqeting Iran? Do It With TV, Not Cruise Missiles Matania Ben-Artzi You Are Not Protecting My Son's Rights: a Letter to the President of Israel's Supreme Court Bruce Jackson Jews Like Us Joe Allen My Lai Revisited Carl Estabrook Support Our Euphemism Steve Perry War Web Log 4/18 Website of the Day Meet the Victims of War   April 17, 2003 Jeffrey St. Clair Patriot Gore: the Fatal Flaws in the Patriot Missile System Joanne Mariner Looting Antiquity: the Legal Implications for the Pentagon Issam Nashashibi Zalmay Khalilzad: the Neocon's Bagman to Baghdad Wayne Madsen Another Sign of the "End Times" for American Journalism Robert Fisk The Army of Occupation Boris Kagarlitsky Virtual Saddam Takes Aim Biljana Vankovska A Personal View of Iraq: Where is the Truth? Dan Brook Oil War: Fueling the Empire Stanley Heller Bomb and Steal: This is What Privatization Looks Like Tim Robbins A Chill Wind is Blowing Through This Nation Harold A. Gould Iraq After the War Steve Perry War Web Log 4/17   Hot Stories Elaine Cassel Civil Liberties Watch Michel Guerrin Embedded Photographer Says: "I Saw Marines Kill Civilians" Uzma Aslam Khan The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War: What America Says Does Not Go Paul de Rooij Arrogant Propaganda Gore Vidal The Erosion of the American Dream Francis Boyle Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution Click Here for More Stories.   Subscribe Online Search CounterPunch

May 3, 2003 The Three Levels of War Don't Take John Boyd's Name In Vain By WILLIAM S. LIND Some senior American military officers and a number of military commentators are now saying that America's swift victory in the first phase of the war with Iraq shows that the U.S. armed forces have learned the lessons John Boyd tried to teach them. As someone who knew and worked with John Boyd, I have to say, not so fast. There is a lot less here than meets the eye. Col. John Boyd, USAF, was undoubtedly the greatest military theorist America has produced. An important part of his theoretical work dealt with what is known as maneuver warfare or Third Generation warfare. Boyd argued that in any conflict, each side goes through repeated cycles of Observing, Orienting, Deciding, and Acting, Boyd's famous OODA Loop. Whoever can consistently go through the OODA Loop faster than his adversary gains a decisive advantage. This concept explains how and why maneuver warfare works, how it "gets inside the other guy's mind," as Boyd liked to say. Supposedly, the U.S. military got inside the OODA Loop of the Iraqi armed forces during the recent campaign, thereby proving that they can do maneuver warfare. This claim is, at best, premature. At present, we do not know why the Iraqis did what they did, especially why the Republican Guard went home rather than fight for Baghdad. Nor do we know how our own forces actually operated. A few preliminary reports suggest the 1st Marine Division may indeed have followed maneuver warfare concepts, echeloning its forces, using mission-type orders, bypassing enemy strong points to keep up the speed of the attack, etc. One of the Marine Corps' premier maneuverists, Brigadier General John Kelly, is the Assistant Division Commander of 1st MAR DIV, so this is not entirely surprising. In fact, 1st MAR DIV also followed maneuver warfare precepts in the first Gulf War, under a very talented commander, General Mike Myatt. But one division's actions by no means prove that the Marine corps as a whole has successfully internalized maneuver warfare. Nor does it say anything about the Army's performance. The Army's Third Infantry Division, the campaign's focus of effort (Schwerpunkt), did move quickly. But a Second Generation force can also move quickly, if and when it has planned to do so. What it generally cannot do is move quickly in response to unexpected threats and opportunities. It does not have the cultural characteristics required to do so, qualities John Boyd stressed such as decentralization, initiative (and the tolerance for mistakes that must accompany initiative), trust up and down the chain of command and reliance on self-discipline rather than imposed discipline. Those characteristics are mighty hard to find in today's United State's Army. More fundamental still is the point that while the OODA Loop was an important part of Boyd's work, there was a great deal more to what John Boyd said and did than the OODA Loop. For example, we are now told that America's armed forces simply cannot be challenged by any state opponent on air, land or sea. What would John Boyd say to that? I can tell you because I often heard him say it. "When we went into Vietnam, I heard the Pentagon say that if you have air superiority and land superiority and sea superiority, you win. Well, in Vietnam we had air superiority and land superiority and sea superiority, and we lost. So I said to myself that there is obviously something more to it." Another of John Boyd's most important contributions to military theory was his observation that war is waged at three levels, the physical, the mental and the moral. The physical level is the weakest and the moral level is the strongest, with the mental in between. How would Boyd assess our performance thus far in terms of his three levels of war? If we could ask him, I think his assessment might go something like this: At the physical level, we won. At the mental level, we just don't know yet, because we don't know what was going on in the other guy's mind. At the moral level, we did good by getting rid of Saddam. But now the hard part comes. Remember, these three levels have to work in harmony. If we come across as the bully, pushing everyone else around not only in Iraq but all over the world, it isn't going to work. If we don't let the people of Iraq run their own country, we're going to lose at the moral level, and then we will lose at the mental and physical levels too. We'll end up giving ourselves the whole enchilada right up the poop chute. Some of the same generals who are now claiming that our initial victory in Iraq shows we have mastered John Boyd's theory feared and hated the real John Boyd. For them now to take Boyd's name in vain would not have made John happy. I can guess what he would have said, but I can't put those words into print. William S. Lind is Director of the Center for Cultural Conservatism at the Free Congress Foundation. Yesterday's Features Jeffrey St. Clair Santorum: That's Latin for Asshole Iain Boal A May Day Message to the FCC: "We Are Many; They are Few" Diana Johnstone About Cuba Sam Hamod Killings at Al Fallujah, City of Mosques Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity Intelligence Fiasco Lee Sustar Greed Air: Airline Workers Agree to Pay Cuts, While Bosses Stuff Their Pockets Peter Linebaugh May Day at Kut and Kenthal Stew Albert Straight Shooters Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 5/01 Website of the Day South Bay Mobilization   Keep CounterPunch Alive: Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online! home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /