Aspects of Asymmetric Post-Modern Warfare

All cultures have liabilities and assets; only fools and politicians demonise opponents and blind themselves to an opponent’s strengths and their own weaknesses. No better formula for defeat exists! All opponents must be respected, as they are perfectly capable of taking your life.

I recently received a chain email, which was a good example of a poorly planned and counter-productive propaganda ploy designed to boost support for occupation forces in Iraq. I have since misplaced it, however, the following accurately reflects the general tone and content: ‘I’m a Marine, I’m made of steel, I am superman, I eat nails for breakfast, I am invincible etc, etc’. The person who originally mailed this piece of poorly planned propaganda forgot to think of the broader picture, which is also characteristic of the present American administration, but to continue:

The enemy is acutely aware they are only flesh and blood and go to great lengths to preserve their extremely vulnerable bodies in combat; they love soldiers who think they are made of steel and attack with reckless abandon and arrogance. The bodies of these idiots litter the battlefields of the world. Whoever originally posted that imbecilic poem was doing the enemy a favour, but America has a bad habit of shooting itself in the head.

A gem from today’s post-modern warfare ‘manual’ follows: “one expert sniper is worth one thousand regulars troops and one expert propagandist is worth one thousand snipers.” A modern fighting force and culture would disregard these simple strategies at their own peril.

The American mass media and entertainment industry (Hollywood) is perhaps the greatest domestic enemy America faces. The profit driven American media persists in perpetuating the mythology of America’s invincibility. “Black Hawk Down” is a typical recent example of a bungle and subsequent defeat portrayed as an heroic endeavour; but perhaps the archetypal piece of apologetic celluloid trash is “Apocalypse Now” (a pathetic attempt to apologise for America’s clear defeat in Vietnam).

A mass media that transforms defeats and disasters into victories or highlights anything other than the inept and abysmal performance of the military in a specific engagement ONLY SERVES TO WEAKEN and soften the nation, its military and the people. Failure to apprehend on a national level the stark reality of defeat, inefficiencies/deficiencies and inept command is a sure path to total defeat.

In contrast to the ‘sophistication’ of America, an illiterate untrained black African Somali fighter instinctively reacted to the international media by dragging – in the most humiliating fashion – the semi-naked dead body of an American Marine before the cameras. International coverage of this event resulted in America ‘dropping its bundle’ and running for its life out of Somalia. Victory was had by an illiterate untrained Somali fighter against the most powerful military force in the world – when is a ‘superpower’ only soup?

America’s inevitable defeat lies not with the generals, or its military academies – it lies in a culture’s failure to face itself. The day a President resigns and confesses that he is not only criminally incompetent but is responsible for the needless deaths of thousands, and accepts full responsibility, is the day when America may face a tenable future – until then analysts continue to observe the nation in rapid decay and terminal regression.