Defenestrating Thoughts from the Bivouac

In 1989, William Lind  was primary contributor to the idea of Fourth Generation Warfare (4GW). The simple definition of 4GW is any war or conflict where one of the major players is not a nation state, but a group that is bound by an ideology. Initially it was used to describe the Cold War period, where “warfare” used secrecy, terror, and subversion more than tanks, planes, and ships.

Since ideology is deeply involved in this sort of warfare, traditional military tactics can be detrimental. This analysis provides very interesting conclusions about American operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with Israeli operations in Lebanon and Palestine.

I found a good article on what the generations of warfare are here. The first generation is when battles were formal and orderly. Armies would dress nicely, meet on a field, line up across from each other and then kill each other.

Once more powerful weapons began more prevalent, this strategy became suicidal and was put aside. The second generation was developed by the French army in World War I: massive firepower. The goal is attrition, and can be summed up by, “The artillery conquers, and the infantry occupies.”

For all the Americans that make fun of the French, you should keep in mind that our army today uses the same tactics that French developed almost 100 years ago (i.e. “Shock and Awe”).

The Third Generation was popularized by the Germans: maneuver warfare (i.e. blitzkrieg). The goal here is not to use brute frontal force, but to get to an enemy rear position and collapse his army inward. Speed, surprise, and dislocation are much more important

With the US military stuck in second generation tactics, you can see why it takes so long to put a sufficient force on the ground. You have to move men and massive amounts of ordinance and infrastructure. For example, take Camp Anaconda: one of four major military bases in Iraq. It has 28,000 soldiers and 8,000 civilian contractors and offers movie theaters, American fast food and dance lessons. The air traffic is so heavy, that it is the second busiest airport in the world. I saw a PBS documentary on this camp. It’s fully air-conditioned and quite nice; especially compared to the tents and shacks that the native Iraqis live in next door.

There are very interesting things in the framework of this analysis, including the how the culture of martial order is changed through generations and how morality of actions may now be more powerful than any weapon.

Much more on this later…