The Primal Conflict
Biology mandates that the Polity*
must survive day to day, and generation to generation. Or in simpler terms,
food and sex (dinner-date, paid & laid).
Without food the individuals die, without sex the Polity dies out. Conflicts occur over priority access to one,
the other or both. Conflict over food or
the means to obtain it, is no game. Conflict over Sex is all game. And it is often hard to distinguish one from
the other.
*Polity is the group that is
to survive or die. It can be external or internal or integrated. This simplifies reference to tribes,
battalion, villages, herds, pods, flocks, and/or schools.
The Warrior is both Hero and
Villain.
In battle, the opponent has
the same ROLE dynamics, in which the Knight goes on the offense, and appears as
a Villain to the enemy. The Offence then
loses the moral stigma found in Psychological Games. That goes to propaganda and Psychological Operations.
Combat requires the combination of the Murderous Knight, the Manipulative
Nurse, and the Mad Infant.
The Commander is both Mother
and Father.
War isn't about being nice,
except when it serves the interests of the Polity. A commander of a Troop Unit must be both
Father and Mother to the troops. That is
stated in US Army doctrine for leadership priorities as “the Mission and the Welfare
of the Troops”. The Mission usually has
priority over the welfare of the troops, but not always and sometimes it is the
other way around.
PROTECT & NURTURE –
ENLIST!
The enemy have their own templates
with the same ROLES except that the RULES and TOOLS combine in ways unique to
that opponent. As it is for one side or the other, the survival of the Polity
and its war fighting body must be Protected and Nurtured and Grown. Unlike the Dinner-Date Roles of the Polity,
the Human Troop Units are not always biological. New recruits for the Troop Unit are family,
and/or raised from outside the Unit, trained (nurtured) and armed (protected)
and the Father Commander (or Mother Commander) is responsible.
SOCIAL STATUS
Face:
Self-confidence in the self and the troop unit.
Fate: The rules, regulations, doctrine, way of war
and what happens in failure. Or success.
Yours and the enemy’s.
Fame: Recognition for service well done. Or not.
Fortune: In this case it is the specialty or military
role of the troops and the troop unit. That may be infantry, cavalry, engineer,
cook and commander. And it also means promotion or disgrace.
The Physical (and its effects)
Time & Distance: How fast and how far.
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| 1968, Unit I was in support of on Thunder Road, QL 13 |
Ground: Terrain analysis and the military use of the
field of battle. It also applies in the
analysis of how the locals, enemies, and allies use the land.
Ridges and Rivers dominate
movement, which movement one is interested in dominating in sex, war, and
politics.
Body: This goes to not only feeding, but the
protection and arming the same.
Training is aimed at getting the most out of
the body of the troops and the Troop Unit itself. In this issue, we deal with the body as the
fighting machines.
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| Relation of TCM to Medieval Fighting Styles |
The hand stuff is a training
aid to remember the RULES.
THE TOOLS
The Tools of the trade
include hardware, software, tactic, technique, and procedure. The success (or failure) of any combination
to achieve the desired Tactical Imperative array link back through the RULES to
enhance the standing of the ROLE.
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| My photos in 1968-9 |
Tactical Strategic Operations#
#Note: Tactics occurs in firing range,
operations is getting in range, and strategy is messing with their minds. These are not distinct levels, but concurrent
at all levels one way or the other.
Failure in one can doom successes elsewhere. Battle is the ultimate conversation, hence
Combat Transactional Analysis must be comprehensive and include all the major
factors: FOOD, FAMILY, ROLES, RULES and TOOLS.
At some point in time, the sides to a conflict
eventually find a course of action that supports living to day to day, and
generation to generation. A successful
one is one in which both sides profit from the agreement. If not, there will be trouble. Victory on the battlefield does not bring on
Victory of the War. It helps, but the
NVA won in Vietnam as they only had to win the last one. Then they had no clue as to how to run a
nation.
General
Nathanael Greene, commander of the Southern Campaign in the American
Revolution, left a series of battles leaving the British on the field, such as
the Battle of Guilford Courthouse having lost more casualties than they could
afford. This led directly to Yorktown, surrender and independence.
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| Shoulder to Shoulder remained in effect until 1915 in the mud of Flanders |
Likewise, the battle tactics favored by Steppe
nomads, upgraded when settled down made a specialty of a fake retreat, drawing
the enemy into a huge trap. This also was a standard tactic in dealing with
Western Knights who, once they charged, were hard to recall, if at all.
Sun Tzu Says It Better:
“The art of war, then, is
governed by five constant factors, to be taken into account in one's
deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the
field. These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2)
Heaven; (3) Earth; (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.
The MORAL LAW causes the
people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him
regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.
HEAVEN signifies night and
day, cold and heat, times and seasons.
EARTH comprises distances,
great and small; danger and security; open ground and narrow passes; the
chances of life and death.
The COMMANDER stands for the
virtues of wisdom, sincerity, benevolence, courage and strictness.
By METHOD AND DISCIPLINE are
to be understood the marshaling of the army in its proper subdivisions, the
graduations of rank among the officers, the maintenance of roads by which
supplies may reach the army, and the control of military expenditure.”
And with regard to deception, he says that “All warfare is based on deception”
“Hence, when able to attack,
we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are
near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must
make him believe we are near.
Hold out baits to entice the
enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him
If he is secure at all
points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him.
If your opponent is of
choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow
arrogant
If he is taking his ease,
give him no rest.
If his forces are united,
separate them.
Attack him where he is
unprepared, appear where you are not expected.
These military devices,
leading to victory, must not be divulged beforehand”
The
last note on OPSEC mitigates against divulging the commander’s intent and
concept of operations.
F4F
is a more tortured route coming to the same conclusions as did Sun Tzu. For the
Warrior, sooner or later, it boils down to battle, or the threat thereof. It gets down to the basics: Smash something, grab something, and/or brag
about it.
The Doolittle Raid on Tokyo on April 18, 1942
smashed little, grabbed nothing, but the bragging about it brought Admiral
Yamamoto to Midway that fateful day on June 4, 1942 that cost Japan four of its
first line carriers.
Battle: Smash, Grab and/or Brag
One to one is a duel,
battle is not a duel for it is many on many. Whether one, the many or the few, the
purpose of battle is to grab something, smash something, and most importantly,
to brag about something. Four Japanese
carriers were smashed, and Saladin took Jerusalem, mission accomplished!
Victory is defined as to Who Goes, Who Stays, and Who Says So.
Courses of
Action. That something is when to stand,
when to fold, when to attack and when to bring more stuff into the game
(defend, attack, withdraw, or reinforce) are the standard courses of action
that you think you know is going on.
A Tactical Victory (or other bragging right) with respect for the battlefield
can be defined as who stays, who goes, and who says so.
The outcome of
battles fought is often the result of happenstance, chance and fluke. Napoleon preferred commanders who were lucky,
regardless of competence. Then again,
there was Moscow where he snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
NNDNN
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