The Flaw in Shock and Awe

by phil on Friday Mar 28, 2003 12:24 PM
war

The Flaw in Shock and Awe - Rumsfeld's theory of warfare isn't working, at least so far. By Fred Kaplan Despite "the lethality and precision of the attacks," the study concluded, Saddam's command-control "system turned out to be more redundant and more able to reconstitute itself than first thought. Fiber-optic networks and computerized switching systems proved particularly tough to put out of action."

The clincher is that this is in regards to Gulf War I, not the Operation Iraqi Freedom. "shock and awe" didn't work then.

What I'm inferring from this is that the Iraqis and Arabs are evolving like a species in response to the threat of the American l'tour de hammeur. Instead of keeping a central form of command, like the US, they are adapting into a disconnected network of self-commanding units. Individual, disconnected nodes, all with the same general objective, jihad or kill-Americans. Sure, kill the brain, the body dies, but within the brain, there is no one "controlling" neuron or separate "soul" that ports in somewhere and tells the brain what to do. Through the collectivite effort of independent units, emerges the intelligence. That's how guerrilla warfare stopped the US in Vietnam.

Adaptation, it's a bitch.

I also discovered that Iraq is letting Al-Jazeera into their country. Al-Jazeera, which is ironically more free than American press in showing dead bodies of War, has had a rallying effect in the Arab world. So what's interesting about Iraq's permission is that maybe the Arab world will discover the benefits of democracy, such as freedom of press, not through America's installment of our values, but rather in natural response to environmental stressors. Maybe this "Operation Iraqi Freedom" will free the Iraqi's regardless of whether we win or not.