A great thinker is gone; Christopher Hitchens–quite possible the greatest thinker of our modern era–left us this past week. It saddens me that I only now learn how great a thinker he was, for I met Christopher Hitchens–twice, in fact–but I did not really know him or his writings at the time, and I’m afraid I misjudged the man, sold him short.

What made me prejudge Hitchens was his professed aetheism (I have a cynical view of the pronounced few among us who choose to deny Deity), his homosexuality (which I view as a form of hedonism, nothing more; i.e. a choice versus a predisposition), and his left-of-center politics.

It turns out the shortcomings were mine, in fact.

“I come to praise Hitch, not to bury him …”

Upon hearing the news of his passing a strange myriad of thoughts crossed my mind. I say strange, because it is strange for me not to have clarity of thought. Focus, planning and the gathering of facts and data for analysis and processing of data into intelligence; these are the various breads and butters of my existence. Of course there are moments of confusion, but these moments can be related to immediate time and place circumstance; situations where suddenly there is more that I don’t know than what I do know. Likewise there are emotional events, but these too generally have a cause that can be pinpointed.

My reaction to the death of Christopher Hitchens was a kind of confusion; a criticism that was not constructive. I considered long and hard what I should write, if indeed I should write anything at all. I did not know the man – the two occasions referred to above took place in the DC party scene. Hitchens held court, whiskey glass & cigarette in hand. Not knowing the man personally (and because of an instinctive need to keep my back to a wall and my eyes on doors and windows) I kept back from the crowd.

My initial confusion was followed by a sort of enlightenment as I learned more and more of the thoughts and opinions of this great British ironist:

Ode to the BlowJob

Now that I actually read this piece of brilliance I kick myself for my prudish, kneejerk reaction. Not that I’m a prude; quite the opposite if anything – as a soldier I’ve spent countless long afternoons of groin-grinding R&R in pleasure pits on every continent except Antarctica. First glance at Hitch’s prologue: As American as Apple Pie . . . . . . From the Wild West to the Wild White House, the author explores the blowjob’s emergence as the nation’s signature sex act. I rolled my eyes. It’s bad enough that these days even schoolgirls know what a Lewinsky is; do we really have to wax poetic about something that was known and practiced for millenia before Columbus? But the man knew how to craft a phrase, and his opening lines drew me in.

“The four most over-rated things in life are champagne, lobster, anal sex and picnics.” – Christopher Hitchens

Sodomy; did we really have to go there? I mean, Champagne isn’t that bad – I’d take it over a Sandusky any day – lobster’s great, and what’s wrong with picnics, anyway? I had a great picnic with a playful California girl in the back of a ‘63 Impala, one early fall afternoon up on Mount Diablo. There wasn’t any sodomy involved and we didn’t miss it, either.

Christopher Hitchens versus Mother Theresa

This is the Godzilla Meets Mothra of blasphemy; I’m not a Catholic but come on – this is Mother Teresa we’re talking about here. How on God’s Green Earth can even an atheist blast Mother Teresa? Then you read on and the initial shock and awe is overtaken by Hitch’s unique insight; he twists and turns your mind to view the saint of the sewers of Calcutta from a completely unique and legitimate perspective:

[Mother Teresa] was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction. And she was a friend to the worst of the rich, taking misappropriated money from the atrocious Duvalier family in Haiti (whose rule she praised in return) and from Charles Keating of the Lincoln Savings and Loan. Where did that money, and all the other donations, go? The primitive hospice in Calcutta was as run down when she died as it always had been—she preferred California clinics when she got sick herself—and her order always refused to publish any audit. But we have her own claim that she opened 500 convents in more than a hundred countries, all bearing the name of her own order. Excuse me, but this is modesty and humility?

I respect you, Hitch, and yes, I honor you. A lefty Euro-socialist who supported the Global War on Terrorism, denounced the 9/11 conspiracy crowd ANDsupported the Iraq Invasion, you’re all right by me. We need more like you, Hitch; philosophers, thinkers. Yours was a quick wit, a keen sense of irony; to me you were in the same league with Cicero.

It is not by lack of literary discipline that I switch to the second person narrative, because unlike you Hitch I know there is an afterlife and my vision of it includes a sort of Elysian Plains–a place not all that unpleasant–where virtuous pagans and souls like your own dwell, the great thinkers and philosophers of history.

Truth be told I would jump at an opportunity to visit this outskirts of Hades, to meet and converse with Aristotle, Cato, and perhaps yourself. If for no other reason to point out that Nietzche didn’t mean it the way you tore apart my adopted motto. Of course, given the dreadful circumstance, who could possibly disagree with the Great Hitch?

I wish I had the time to do half the thinking and philosophizing you accomplished in too short a time on this Earth, Hitch. May the Diety that exists in whatever Valhalla you are now bless you, and all of us. As another famous atheist used to say, “May your God go with you…”

Originally Posted on Stormbringer.

A new ad by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals features a turkey with the head of a dog. It reads, “Kids: If you wouldn’t eat your dog, why eat a turkey? Go Vegan.”

The immediate goal is to stop shoppers from buying turkeys for Thanksgiving, but PETA admits it is targeting children like other advertisers.

“It’s important to teach kids because they are young enough to have open minds that animals are not food. They do feel pain” said Bryan Wilson, a PETA spokesman.

This just goes to show once more how stupid vegetarians are in general, particularly the whacko extremists at PETA.

First of all, there’s a world of difference between Dog–a.k.a Man’s Best Friend and long time companion since the caveman days–and a bird so stupid that in captivity they have been known to look up when it rains, staring open-mouthed in wonder until they drown.

Let’s establish something straight right here from the get go: Man occupies the top of the food chain for a reason, and the animals are here on this Earth to serve us. In the case of the turkey, that service includes with stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce and potatoes on the side.

Dog, on the other hand, serves us by showing extreme loyalty, and working hard to protect us and also to keep us warm on cold winter nights. My dogs are more than human, they are G-O-D spelled backwards. In fact, the more people I meet, the more I love my dogs.

There is a special symbiotic relationship between dogs and humans that is unique throughout the Animal Kingdom. Not even cats are as close to their human masters as dogs are. The bond between Humankind and Dogkind is extraordinary, it’s a beautiful thing. A Dog will stand by his Master ’till the dying day. In fact, a Dog will stand by his Master, follow him to the ends of the Earth, face off against any danger with absolute total disregard for his own safety, and willingly DIE for the Master if the situation so warrants it. History is replete with stories of hero dogs rescuing young children, fending off wild animals, saving the day time and again.

I have scoured the internet and have yet to find a single occasion of a turkey ever doing anything that even comes close, short of saving us from starvation during the Pilgrim experience, and all they did then was just be there. They don’t even do tricks.

I don’t know what offends me more; PETAs sick comparison of dogs to dumb bird-brains, or the fact that they chose the remarkable Jack Russell breed–like my loyal Tiny–to make their convoluted point.

This is what I have to say to the environmental nutjobs at PETA: to compare a bird-brained bird to our loving and loyal companion Dog is a piss-poor analogy.

Everybody knows that Turkey was placed on this Earth, right alongside Chicken, Cow, Pig, Goat, Sheep and sometimes Horse, Deer and Snake, and of course all the tasty Fish in the Sea, for Man to eat. Preferably deep-fried (in the case of the Turkey, Chicken and Fish), barbecued (in the case of Pig) or on a grill over a bed of hot coals. Aristotle tells us that this is the Natural Order of things.

Dog’s place is by Man’s side as the meat is placed upon the grill, to snack on morsels tossed his way and to gnaw on bones and leftovers, his reward and indeed his birthright for undying loyalty and protection, and in some cases for duties rendered as hunting companion in bringing in the animals that we feast upon.

As a soldier in the Far East, I have actually eaten dog, on more than one occasion. It was tasty the way it was prepared, but quite honestly the concept of eating our companion species was somehow disturbing. Oddly, I have eaten monkey on several occasions and this did not bother me in the slightest. So much of the concept that we are somehow related to the monkeys; the Vegans might be – I personally am more closely related to the wolves and the bears.

If there is such a thing as Evolution, then the eternal relationship between Dog and Man is the closest thing to physical evidence we have of this radical theory. Vegans, on the other hand, are living proof that the theory that embraces Survival of the Fittest has somehow, somewhere gone horribly awry. Vegans can only exist because the hunters and warriors of the Human Tribe have established safety zones to make it possible for them to live off the bounty of Agriculture–in the natural environment they would perish. Vegans have to make propaganda like this to recruit to their ranks because everybody knows if they didn’t they would soon breed themselves out of existence.

For PETA to compare our loving, loyal canine companions to a thing that looks like it comes from Outer Space – and actually did come out of an egg just like Lady Gaga – is sick and twisted. To focus their perverse agenda upon the impressionable minds of our young in an attempt to convert and recruit to the unholy Cult of Vegan-ism is borderline sacrilege.

Originally Posted at Stormbringer.

In America, Veterans Day is when we respect our Veterans. Throughout the British Commonwealth, today is known as Remembrance Day, for the Honorable Dead.

The date November 11th was originally Armistice Day, for of course; the “Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month” when the Great War to End All Wars came to a halt.

Remembrance Day is represented by poppies; many Americans do not understand the significance of poppies.

Throughout the Commonwealth countries–notably Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and in some places here in the United States, people buy poppies and wear them on their lapels, to contribute to veteran’s causes.

The poppy represents one of the great battles of World War I, memorialized in a poem by Canadian physician and Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae on 3 May 1915, after he witnessed the death of his friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, 22 years old, the day before:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Sean Linnane blogs at STORMBRINGER

Thanks alot McCain, I’m sorry I voted for your sorry RINO ass. Of course, I only voted for you because the alternative was unthinkable–but it’s not as if there was a conservative in the running. This latest caper of yours confirms it:

According to reports, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has stepped up his push to block working age retirees from using TRICARE Prime. McCain suggested to the powerful 12-member Joint Select Committee on Debt Reduction it would help avoid spending cuts that would directly impact readiness.

What do you care, McCain? You’re a made man for life: Daddy’s an admiral, academy grad, certified war hero, Senator. You’re the epitome of everything that’s wrong with our system; the living embodiment of the old Roman Patrician class.

Cuts have got to be made, and Lord knows you can’t cut all those bazillian-dollar wasteful weapons programs, because that’d cut into all your Starfleet Command officer buddy’s slice of the pie, and we can’t have that. Just like it’s beyond your puny imagination to consider a ten percent across-the-board cut on all budgetary items–even though with all the waste in the Department of Defense they’d never miss it. Oh HELL no, here’s a better idea: let’s stick it to the veterans–les enfants, “those who cannot speak.”

Well let me tell you about me, and twenty three million other guys like me: I gave the most productive years of my life, my health, a little piece of my soul and a good chunk of my sanity to Uncle Sam’s Mean, Lean, Killing Machine; and the medical-coverage-for-life lie was a rude shock we all learned about back during the Clinton years. So now we pay for it – not a lot but not a little either. I need to save money, McCain, because unlike you I ain’t rich, and I need to put my kids through college. I work like a galley slave and I haven’t had a vacation in at least five years: I need to scrimp and save every penny because military retirement isn’t worth doodley-squat and what little we get in disability they turn around and take right out of our retirement.

Take note, America; this is where this Obamacare thing leads to. So much for your “free” Government healthcare; take it away from the single most deserving segment of our society–the veterans.

And you do it in November, no less. The Month of Honor. That’s real classy, McCain. You got real style, got to hand it to you. You rat f*ckin’ bastard.

Let your elected officials know how you feel about Senator McCain’s proposals.

Question: How many veterans are there in the United States?

Answer: According to U.S. Census 2006 projections, there are 23,977,000 veterans living within households in the United States (U.S. Census: National Security & Veterans Affairs). 17,261,000 (nearly 72%) of all U.S. veterans are over the age of 50 which also contributes to the growing need of access to quality health care.

Dirty Little Secret: We’re all Tea Partiers – each and every one of us – and unlike the MTV Generation, we actually get out there and vote. You think 2010 was an eyeopener? That was just a wake-up call. You wait and see what we’ve got in store for you in 2012.

I’m all for cutting federal spending programs – and there are plenty that need cutting – BUT the particular program McCain is suggesting cutting is one of the very few so-called “entitlements” that is actually earned (and consider what we have to go through to earn it!) There is double-extra irony in that to afford the Obamacare monstrosity we have to cut back not only on Tricare but also Medicare and Medicaid–the (already existing) government healthcare programs that actually work.

Keeping with the concept that if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem, I do suggest a 10% across-the-board cut to the DoD budget as an alternative.

Veterans “entitlements” are anything but because they are actually earned by the single most worthy of recipients, and as such should be sancrosanct. They are a part & parcel of G.I. pay. How much should a G.I. Be paid? Let me answer that question with a question: how much should a guy get paid, for a job description that includes: “I am an American, fighting in the forces which guard my country and our way of life. I am prepared to give my life in their defense.” (U.S. Military Code of Conduct)

The answer is represented by the symbol for infinity.

Originally Posted at Stormbringer.

“I will never stand for national anthem again. I will turn my back and I will raise a fist…”
– Jesse Ventura

Former Governor of Minnesota, ex-Navy SEAL, and former wrestling star Jesse Ventura has added another credential to his resume: professional whiner and big time media cry baby:

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (AP) — Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Venturais so upset by the dismissal of his airport security lawsuit that he threatened Friday to apply for dual citizenship so he can spend more time in his beloved Mexico — or run for president of what he labeled “the Fascist States of America.”

If that is what you have to say about America, then I say to you: “Good riddance to bad rubbish!” – America isn’t about you, Jesse. Never was and never will be. America is about “Ask not what your country can do for you, rather, ask what you can do for your country.”

I didn’t fly those planes into those buildings; in fact, I have dedicated my life to protecting America and the Free World against the guys who would kill each and every one of us, given half the chance. But I have to stand in line to get on planes, take my shoes off, dump my drink bottle and toothpaste and everything else along with all the rest of us. And I have had to do this even back when I was a green-suiter, and even now more than ever; security clearance, credentials and blue ID card notwithstanding.

Ventura, also a former wrestling star, sued the U.S. government in January, alleging that airport scans and pat-downs amounted to unreasonable search and seizure. A district judge threw out his lawsuit Thursday, ruling it should have been filed in a Circuit Court of Appeals.

Ventura has said a titanium hip implanted in him in 2008 sets off metal detectors and that agents previously used hand-held wands to scan his body. He said he was subjected to a body pat-down after an airport metal detector went off last November. Ventura said he hasn’t flown since and won’t fly commercially again.

You know what I say to that, Jessie? I say “Tough tittie, suck it up like the rest of us.” What, a big, bad man like you can’t handle being frisked in the name of national security? Is that all it takes for you to turn your back on your country? That’s pretty lame, if you ask me.

You can’t take the heat, get the hell out of the kitchen. This is the United States of America – it’s a free country and oh by the way this country made you rich and famous, you hypocrite. If you don’t like it here, the border’s that-a-way. You can take all your whiner 99%-er OWS friends with you, and don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.

You got something to say to my face, Jesse, you can find me. You can start by clicking on the link at the bottom of this post. I ain’t some dumb reporter you can blow your horn in front of a bunch of cameras and microphones. And don’t think you’re anybody special; like you I defended this country. Unlike you I love my country and I don’t like seeing her disgraced.

Originally posted at Stormbringer.

“And zis wan ees le poullet – zee chicken – served weeth zee pommes de terre wheech ees zee patoto – and zees wan is le bif-thtek served weeth le croquettes, and zees wan ees a delightful mash of zee meat served weeth zee hash . . .”

I said “Yes, I can understand the menu.”

“Oh well een zat case,” he turned around. “Of course, the second I said that, I can’t understand a thing that’s up there.”

“Oh, well zees wan ees a kind of a paste, served weeth au gratin, and zees wan ees a lovely gruel served weeth bat wings zat I haven’t had seence zee boarding school so I weel be having zat wan . . . what weel you be having?”

“Le poullet.“

“Ah, bien sure, zee cheecken.” A basket of French bread was placed on the table and I took a piece, broke it, and created some excitement when I lifted the lid off the mustard pot and started spreading it on the bread.

“Alors Sean, zat ees le moutard.“

“Yes, I know.”

“But you are putting eet on le pain, eet ees not le burre.“

“Yes, I know.”

“But eet ees le moutard.“

“Yes, I know. This is the way they do it in Africa. The French people down there taught me this.”

“Les francais? En Afrique?“

“Oui, les francais de quelle vivens en Afrique. Les pied-nois.” – the ‘Black-feet’ – the French who live down there, the ones who remained in Africa; remnants of the French Empire (which never really went away, just sort of changed in nature). The Colonials. As a Colonial myself, I always had an affinity for my fellow Colonials.

“Ah, zey use le moutard, instead of le burre?“

“Exactement. It makes more sense in the tropics, and it’s really good avec le vin rouge.“

“Ah, bravo! Le moutard au pain avec le vin rouge c’est bon!” and they all started spreading this intense horseradish mustard all over the bread, and washing it down with flagons of good French red wine. And it IS good.

“C’est bon! C’est bon!” I think I just started another fad . . . I love France. I am a total Anglophile, and I understand that the French are supposed to be the enemy, but I can’t help it there are some aspects of French culture that I really enjoy. When I say I love France and the French culture, I’m talking about this kind of lifestyle:

NOT this:

The French to me are not my enemy they are my friends – they have a certain savoir faire – and we must always remember that without France there would have never been an America, n’est ce pas? Maybe I have a love-hate relationship with France. Whatever. At the height of the Franco-Americaine anxieties of 2003 in the lead up to the Iraq Invasion, my boycott of all things French never extended to their wines, and I could never bring myself to ask for an order of ‘Freedom Fries’. To me they were always “pommes frits“.

Of course I was living in Germany at the time so that was an easy one to get away with. Later that night, after updating STORMBRINGER, I took off for a stroll around the streets of Paris. My second – and last – night in town; no time to take in the sights, no Tour d’Eiffel or Louvre for me. The least I can do is lurk around like a refugee from a Victor Hugo novel, and do my bit to add to the local color. Using an old area reconnaisance technique, I started walking in ever-expanding circles; pressing out a further city block every time to fully explore my little quadrant of Paris. The cafes were full of boulevardiers; I quickly covered at least a sixteen-block area before falling back on a quiet cafe in an ancient building marked “l’Hotel de Chevallier” – chevallier is French for knight and I am a knight so that is the cafe for me.

“Bon soir!”

“Bon soir. Est ce que ton couisine ouvert?”

“Oui bien sure! Nous avons le poullet avec le pommes de terre ou le bif-thtek ou le croquettes ou un souffle de bat wings avec eye of newt et tongue of toad. De quelle preferez vous, monsiueur?”

“Le biftek.” “Ah, bien sure, le biftek.”

“Et du vin.”

“BIEN SURE LE VIN!” and he starts going into the whole procedure where you have to taste the wine – something I didn’t expect with the bottle of house plonk.

I learned how to do this right with the correct nod years ago from a Yugoslavian friend down in Aussie; I keep it in my arsenal right up there with the quintessential Gallic shrug which I perfected during the Evacuation of Yammousoukro. Apparently I was pulling it off; blending into the local scenery that is. My host the barkeeper was blabbering on and on and I speak French but that doesn’t mean I understand it. I learned le francais in Africa, and the Africans speak French like they speak English; slowly amd correctly and they pronounce every word.

The Parisians speak French very quickly – not as bad as the Puerto Ricans and Cubans speak Spanish which is faster than an MG-38/42 Spandau machinegun – but they speak from the backs of their mouths and they intentionally slur all their words and I’m half deaf from a quarter-century-plus of working with explosives, firearms and heavy machinery, and quite honestly I can barely understand what people are saying to me in English half the time, let alone le francais with all those ooh’s and ah’s . . . Suddenly it occurred to me I just closed a loop in my life that began when I was about thirteen and I first learned about Ernest Hemingway . . . my mother was hosting a bridge party and I was obviously getting in the way so my sainted Auntie Helen stationed me on a stool at the bar and explained to me that I was Ernest Hemingway having a gin and tonic at the bar on the left bank of the Seine . . .

“Who’s Ernest Hemingway?”

“Oh he wrote a few books, he was a kind of an adventurer, and he lived in Paris in the twenties, hung out in those cafes and wrote about everything he did on the battlefield . . .”

“What’s the Left Bank?”

“Oh you know it’s that part of Paris where all the Bohemians lived.”

“Who are the Bohemians?”

“The artists and the writers – you’d fit right in . . .”

Silvia Beach, Ernest Hemingway, and friends outside Shakespeare and Company, circa 1919. Over the next few years I read every Hemingway book I could get my hands on and like many young men he inspired me and I idolized him. Then as I grew up I came to realize he really only wrote two or three books that were worth anything and a lot of what he wrote is pure tripe and I’m not going to turn this blog into a some kind of a shrine to an egomaniac. Still, he was a man’s man, and he revolutionized the writing style – the whole stream-of-consciousness thing – and I use this style when I write so you’ve got to give credit where credit is due I suppose.

My pursuit of the Hemingway-esque lifestyle continued throughout my adventures in Africa . . . a long, drawn-out saga in Mauritania . . . an encounter with le 13eme Demi-Brigade, Legion Etranger on a battlefield in Cote d’Ivoire . . . my post-retirement activities as an ‘independent contractor’ . . . And then it strikes me – I’m here enjoying la vie boulevadier because a lot of good men that I stood next to paid the ultimate price, gave all so I could make it to where I am now . . . what can I say? You get some good ones, you get a lot of bad ones . . . one thing I can say is I paid my dues, and I enjoy every waking hour on behalf of those who cannot enjoy anything any longer . . . and I never forget to honor them at every war memorial I pass by . . .

I seek out war memorials and I am not ashamed to admit that the tears well up when I stand in front of them because I am so unworthy . . . this is the TRUE meaning of the cliche: “It’s a rough job, but somebody’s gotta do it . . . ” All the people out there who understand what a Survivors Guilt Complex is all about – and you know who you are – you understand this . . . I’ve got a Survivor’s Guilt Complex so big you could photograph it. I swear to God – I attended a strangers funeral in Chicago – a kid I never knew, never even met – got himself kia’d in Afghanistan, and the whole town of Joillet turned out to the high school gym – I heard about it at work and it was on my way back to the hotel so I showed up to pay my respects and I swear I cried like a baby . . . couldn’t stop the tears, they came down like water . . . PTSD is REAL . . . that’s why I live every moment like it is a precious gift from God – because of the fact that I’m here because better men than me are not . . . With these poignant thoughts in mind I make my way back to my hotel . . . tomorrow morning was coming up fast and that big ol’ jet airliner . . .

The most senior US military officer has accused Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Agency of supporting the Haqqani group in last week’s attack on the US Kabul embassy:

“The Haqqani network … acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Agency,” Admiral Mike Mullen told a Senate panel.

A reader asks: “What is the game plan here, Sean? How long can we support a government that is our enemy? If Mullen is convinced, then so should we.”

First of all let me point out that it is not the government of Pakistan that is our enemy, per se – it is Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Agency that we are in a de facto war against.

Just like we are in a de facto war against al Qaeda, and the Taliban.

Our enemies in this war are global, they hold no capital cities – beyond some worthless real estate in Somalia they hold NO cities and it’s debatable whether they hold one even there. Our enemies have no uniform, no flags, no tanks, no artillery, no airplanes, and no fleet of warships. They once had an air force for a very short period of time – the morning of 9/11 – and they kamikazied them all in.

If our enemies ever assembled on a single battlefield we could crush them at once – which of course is the point why they operate the way they do. We – the Free World – have achieved such overwhelming military superiority that no enemy on Earth can prevail against us on a conventional battlefield, not even the Chinese; never mind the Iranians and the North Koreans.

And yet conflict is a part of the human condition, it is a constant, and global conflict – like Nature itself – abhors a vacuum. The label “Post-Modern War” describes a state of conflict not only with guerrilla forces – the terrorists – but a war in which enemy and allied nations themselves are in the process of disintegration into failed nation-states.

The Taliban have no country. Instead they occupy villages in the Afghan countryside and maintain a foothold in the Pakistani Northwest; a ruggedly inaccessible region known collectively as Waziristan, these tribal areas form a hinge between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Al Qaeda has no country, no flag even. They dare not surface for a political rally – even their supreme leader, hiding out in Pakistan’s forbidding Tribal Territories, was not safe from our over-arching presence on the global battlefield.

The sponsorship of the Taliban and al-Qaeda by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Agency represents a dangerous step toward Pakistan’s disintegration into a failed nation-state. In the World of Yesterday, this may have represented no more than an extension of the existing Federally Administered Tribal Areas – all the way to the Indian border.

Unfortunately, in the world of Today, Pakistan is a member of the Nuclear Club, and as such we cannot afford to have her fail as a state. Instead, we must struggle with the reality that we are at war with an institution that is an entity in and of itself: the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency, while at the same time the state-sponsor of this organization is a vital ally in that war.

Confusing? Welcome to the Post-Modernist War; guerrilla warfare on a global scale.

And when you think about it, what’s happening is not really a new concept – it’s what we call in the trade “UW “; Unconventional Warfare – taking part on a global scale.

Mao conceptualized and practiced modern guerrilla warfare. Mao said that the guerrilla is a fish, and the sea that it swims in is the surrounding population. When the guerrilla loses the support of the people, he perishes. A stark example of this was the fall of Che Guevara in Bolivia. A more recent example was the failure of al Qaeda to prevail in Iraq.

In Sam Peckinpah’s brilliant 1977 fim “Cross of Iron” German troops on the Eastern Front in WWII discuss Clausewitz and Friedrich von Bernhardi, a Prussian general and military historian. A militarist, von Bernhardi advocated a policy of ruthless aggression and complete disregard of treaties and regarded war as a “divine business”. Clausewitz, of course, coined the phrase that War is nothing more than the continuation of State Policy, or Diplomacy, by other means. He actually did not say “State policy” – he simply said Politik.

The bottom line is that Conflict manifests itself in many forms, that it is a constant of the Human Condition, and that War itself will morph and change to fit the battlefield conditions. Modern guerrilla warfare has demonstrated that smaller, more flexible groups of dedicated warriors could defeat larger standing armies – although not always. What I describe loosely as Post Modern Warfare un-constrains the themes and principles of Mao and von Clauswitz from conventional battlefields and even urban guerrilla battlefields and brings organizations and even governmental institutions into the play of the problem.

Me? My business is Chaos, and business is looking like it will be good, for a long time to come . . .

Originally posted at Stormbringer

A giant portrait of Moammar Gaddafi is bullet-riddled on the wall of a building in the Bab al-Aziziyah district in Tripoli, Libya.  The professional soldiers of the world and students of irregular warfare have just enjoyed a rare opportunity: ringside seats of a successful guerrilla insurgency, fully documented via the modern electronic media phenomenon of the Information Era. I say ’students of irregular warfare’ and not ‘experts’ because I was taught that there are no experts in anything, only serious students.

Mao Tse-Tung, the father of modern guerrilla warfare, wrote of “strategic defensive,” “strategic stalemate,” and “strategic offensive.” U.S. Army Special Forces acknowledges these concepts in the doctrine of unconventional warfare, which has three developmental phases of an insurgency.

Phase I – Latent and Incipient. This when an insurgency is most vulnerable. Insurgent leaders are focused primarily on two things: organization and the population. Subversive activities such as establishing funding and external support mechanisms, infiltrating government and other key organizations, psychologically preparing the population, and arranging resistance struggles (such as boycotts and strikes) take place.

Outside of government intelligence organizations, it is unknown how extensive these activities were within Libya prior to the outbreak of street riots in the “Arab Spring” of 2011. Likewise, we are not aware of any activities by resistance cadre or political entrepreneurs such as recruiting, training, group structuring, and unit development. The confusion that appeared to exist within NATO throughout the entire continuum of this conflict suggests that no “shadow government” existed prior to the Arab Spring. Instead, what we witnessed appears to be an insurgency that swiftly and successfully progressed to Phase II; Guerrilla Warfare, and almost immediately thereafter to Phase III; War of Movement.

Phase II – Guerrilla Warfare. This phase is characterized by offensive operations intended to grind the regime’s capabilities to a halt; these are the most obvious indicator of an insurgency’s progress. Successful guerrilla operations force the regime to choose between defending what it knows — its infrastructure, symbols, associations, and representatives — and attacking what it doesn’t know — the endlessly mobile and seemingly ubiquitous enemy that prefers to vanish rather than stand and fight. These operations overtly challenge the regime’s capabilities.

On the military side, limited offensive actions engage resources, symbols, and representatives of the regime. Guerrilla leaders decide to either “fight” or “flee” based upon their capability of either holding ground or decisive engagement. Extensive reconnaissance and preparation in the planning phase and speed, surprise, and innovation typify their rapid and short attacks. At the same time, the insurgency’s political machine is also functioning: propaganda and economic activities occur as the shadow government agitates the political, social, and economic grievances of the population. Again, we have no outside indications that any kind formal resistance to the Gaddafi regime existed prior to the street demonstrations of Arab Spring. My experience suggests that nothing occurs by coincidence. Simply because we in the West were not aware of a Libyan shadow government does not mean that one did not exist – it is quite possible that representatives of an embryonic insurgency movement sponsored by al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (a.k.a. al-Qaeda in North Africa) trained and prepared for for years to make their move, and the opportunity came in the historic regional uprisings of Arab Spring.

Phase III – War of Movement. This occurs when the insurgency has developed an effective military organization capable of conventional warfare and (doctrinally) a Resistance organization that has an effective shadow government capable of administering to the population’s needs. Because of the mind-boggling speed which the events in Libya proceeded from Phase I to Phase III – due in large part to the NATO-imposed No Fly Zone – there is little evidence that any kind of shadow government that may or may not have existed was capable of any kind of administration whatsoever.

Because of the NATO NFZ, the Gaddafi regime rapidly exhausted it’s military resources fighting the insurgency. In the wake of the Gaddafi regime’s inevitable collapse, the immediate concern is the construction of a new regime. If the Resistance has managed its strategy well, then moving directly to reconstruction is now possible. There is, however, little evidence of a well-organized insurgency leadership capable of managing itself even, let alone reconstruction and the establishment of a new Libyan government. A brief window of opportunity exists for the Western nations to step in and preclude the Muslim Brotherhood and/or al-Qaeda from establishing a fundamentalist Islamic Republic a la Iran, or Afghanistan under the Taliban.

Doctrinally, the three aforementioned phases of an insurgency develop through seven phases of sponsorship:

• Preparation

• Initial Contact

• Infiltration

• Organization

• Buildup

• Employment

• Transition

On the surface, the Libyan experience appears to have happened spontaneously, but I personally suspect the insurgency has an outside sponsor (other than NATO), namely the Muslim Brotherhood and/or al-Qaeda. According to the doctrinal model, the first phase involves cadres (of the sponsoring power) conducting research of the target area — population, environment, and the regime. Propaganda, psychological operations, and civil-military operations are also among preparation activities. In the second phase, cadres initiate contact — they meet with resistance leaders, assess resistance potential, and determine capabilities. In the third phase, political entrepreneurs infiltrate and position themselves to develop internal command and control (C2).

In the fourth phase, the embedded political entrepreneurs build rapport with the population so that the (outside) cadres may work with the Resistance leadership. C2 of the Resistance takes shape, and local leadership is developed. The fifth phase is buildup; the resistance and insurgency expand; this phase marks the insurgency’s shift from the first developmental phase (Latent and Incipient) to the second (Guerrilla Warfare). Offensive guerrilla activities expand in the sixth operational phase of an insurgency. This is where insurgency growth continues into the third developmental phase (War of Movement); large conventional clashes with regime forces are possible. The movement in Libya is rapidly approaching the seventh and final phase: transition. This is the point where for political and/or strategic reasons the cadres cease their sponsorship of the resistance. The resistance may have succeeded in its goals, or it may not be capable of continuing, or the Resistance may be moving in a direction that the sponsoring power does not prefer. It is during the transition phase that the most sensitive and difficult mission occurs: demobilization.

The State Department has spent $3 million on two international weapons teams to locate and destroy shoulder-fired anti-aircraft systems in rebel-held parts of the country. The teams have demolished nearly 30 Russian SA-7 launchers, such as the one pictured above. It is significant to note that in the history of guerrilla warfare, a successful demobilization has never been achieved.

I just got back from training future Green Berets down in Fort Bragg – Robin Sage is their graduating exercise. I remember when I went through Robin Sage, it was as hard a duty as anything I have ever done and it hasn’t changed; I lost 20 lbs in two weeks.

I take this mission very seriously because these guys are the future of the Regiment, and I wouldn’t want to be responsible for sending sub-standard material downrange where hesitation & bad judgment will get people killed.

At the culmination of the exercise, this is the speech I gave to the group I was training; these were the pure Zen-like thoughts coming right off the top of my head after the better part of 48 hours without sleep:

Don’t forget nuthin’. The World is full of evil people who only want to do you harm – the sooner you realize this, the better off you will be.

Learn basic skills. Understand what Sun Tzu meant when he said the greatest victory is the victory you win without having to fight a single battle.

When you enter a room, move to your Point of Domination and go about eliminating the Threat.

In his Book of Five Rings, Musashi teaches us that the only thing you know about any situation you find yourself in is: there is ten thousand times more that you don’t know about what’s going on than what you do know.

Keep yer hatchet scoured, musket clean, sixty rounds of cap and ball, and be ready to march at a minute’s notice.

Read the writings of Napoleon and Von Clauswitz; become familiar with the formal layout of any organization you find yourself a part of, and then try to learn how it really works.

Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet.

Time spent in reconnaissance is never wasted; George Washington said that and it worked for him – remember it.

Visit ancient battlefields, pace them out,and try to envision what the commanders and the foot soldiers saw on that day and what guided their decisions.

Get up before dawn, because dawn is when the French and the Indians attack.

Study the American Civil War, the brilliant leadership displayed upon its mighty battlefields, and try to understand the dilemmas soldiers faced in that terrible time.

Do things to distinguish yourself: train hard, earn specialty credentials, college degrees and technical capabilities.

When packing for the next operation, layout what you think you’ll need, then take half as many clothes and twice as much money and you’ll always come out right.

You can’t do everything, so you must delegate; you can delegate your authority but never your responsibility; when you do delegate do not micro-manage – look to the results not the methodology.

There is something very primitive about a raid, and the raid is characterized by speed, stealth and violence of action.

Always have a plan, a backup plan, and a go-to-hell plan; because no plan survives contact intact.

Tactics, techniques and procedures are adapted to the time, place and situation, but the principles of patrolling never change: security, planning, reconnaissance, control, and common sense.

Never lie to your troops, because they can smell a lie a mile off and the second you lie to them you are no longer the man in charge; you’re just the guy standing out in front of the formation. Never tell a man to do something that you yourself are not willing to do, and demonstrate this by letting them see you do the hardest, most unforgiving of tasks, when the time and situation is appropriate. Never give an order that you know will not be obeyed; when faced with a dilemma, find a creative way to demonstrate leadership.

The only constant to conflict is that conflict is a part of the human condition; it is not static and therefore you must be flexible in seeking solutions.

Patton teaches us that War is simple, brutal and direct; that if everyone in the room is thinking the same thing, then no-one is thinking; and that no good decision was ever made from a swivel chair.

It’s not about the size of the dog in the fight it’s about the size of the fight in the dog – Teddy Roosevelt.

Never underestimate your Enemy; that diversion you are ignoring is the Enemy’s main assault. Don’t forget nuthin’.

Today Lt. Colonel Eeben Marlow’s meditates upon the atrocious concept known as “Courageous Constraint” –introduced by Team Obama in May of 2010. I say atrocious because, for me, the greatest war crime – once a nation has committed itself to war – is to do anything less than that which is required to complete the military mission as soon as possible, minimizing suffering for all involved, civilians and non-combatants included.

Restated, once a nation has committed to war, to do anything less than commit any and all resources to ending the conflict as quickly and efficiently as possible is to needlessly extend human suffering. How is this not a crime against humanity?

“War is Hell” – anyone who has visited a battlefield knows this. Just ask the residents of Normandy about the memorable summer of 1944.

Perhaps a more appropriate example would be Libya, spring and summer of 2011, where well-meaning self-imposed constraints on behalf of the NATO powers have guaranteed the continued suffering of civilians and non-combatants for months now. Consider: if the purpose back in May was to prevent or limit human suffering in Libya, wouldn’t it really have been more effective to have done nothing? What was an internal conflict would have been over within a fortnight.  Having made the decision to engage in combat operations, however, to constrain ourselves to a device over which diplomats and politicians can comfortably digest their dinners – “No Fly Zone” – seems to me a greater war crime than launching a fully-fledged conventional military invasion – complete with tank columns, naval artillery bombardments, airborne operations, etcetera – designed to topple the dictator and liberate the land a la France, 1944.

The immediate comparison is Iraq, 2003. Critics will swiftly point out that the suffering of non-combatabts extended well beyond what military planners imagined in April of ‘03.  This is true, and at the risk of being labeled a Monday morning quarterback, I would like to point out a few other truisms:

In the months leading up to the commencement of conventional military operations in Iraq, there were seventeen Iraqi divisional commanders willing to go along with the West, turn on Saddam Hussein, and assist with what would have admittedly been a bloody coup, but a lot less bloody than what we got.  All it would have taken were seventeen Special Forces Operational Detachments with seventeen suitcases full of cash.  Seventeen million dollars, plus shipping and handling expenses, and we would have seen a repeat of what had just gone down in Afghanistan the previous warfighting season.

The problem with that scenario is that the US military machine is owned and operated by the boys with the biggest toys; the forces with the biggest budgets, largest fighting formations and most expensive weapons systems have more presence at the table than the lean, mean Special Operations machine.  The Tank Army had been staged in Kuwait for twelve years, planning and rehearsing for just this contingency.  And they weren’t going to let a bunch of long-haired weirdos carrying exotic weapons and wearing customized uniforms cut them out of what was going to be THEIR war – or worse yet – threaten to reduce the size of their rice bowl.

And so we did it the hard way, and we all know what happened next.  Conventional military operations went as planned; history was made; and historical records were established for mobility warfare.  In the immediate aftermath of the liberation of Iraq, however, two critical failures occurred and to this I point directly to the US military leadership.

First, the Iraqi military was disbanded. This led to the guerrilla struggle which continued for at least seven years following the war. We did not do this following World War II in either Europe or Japan; former Axis foes were used to enforce the fragile peace against guerrillas in both theaters. We DID do this following the Union’s victory over the Confederacy in 1865, however, and the disastrous 12-year guerrilla war that followed is described in modern textbooks as the “Reconstruction Era”.

Second, US military leadership made a critical error in planning. The US Military’s planning device is known as the Military Decision Making Process. Part of this process is Course of Action (COA) Comparison; three or four COAs are compared upon a template.  The fourth COA is usually so extreme that it is almost unimaginable. This COA is introduced for the express purpose of making the other COAs look good; a kind of group think emerges and the fourth COA is cast aside, almost ritually.

In planning for Operation Iraqi Freedom, conventional military leadership actually considered the notion of a post-invasion, protracted guerrilla conflict, an almost untenable concept in the swift, surgical operations of the post-Vietnam era. Never mind the fact that this was precisely what we were engaged in over in Afghanistan.  This was the COA that was thrown out . . . and we now know how THAT brilliant plan came out in the wash . . .