4GW.
This is coolbert:
Colonel Craig [USMCR] has suggested that the current conflict the Western World is involved in can best be termed as World War Four [WW4].
I would concur with this.
NOT ONLY is the current conflict WW4, but this war is being fought with what is termed "fourth generation warfare" [4GW] [from the standpoint of the enemy we in the west are facing].
By fourth generation warfare [4GW] is meant war by a non-governmental entity. War by unconventional means.
[for those that are interested, first generation warfare [1GW] refers to the Napoleonic black powder type of warfare, second generation [2GW] is the shoot and move type of warfare as pioneered by the French in World War One [WW1], and third generation warfare [3GW] is defined as "blitzkrieg" warfare as practiced by the Germans in World War Two [WW2].]
The enemy in this current war, primarily the Islamic jihadi enemy, is resorting to 4GW as they have realized the impossibility of defeating the west by CONVENTIONAL MEANS. NOT ONLY that, the jihadi is in contempt of Islamic governments, so-called, throughout the Muslim world. Those governments are seen as being corrupt bootlickers of "western imperialism" and traitors to the cause of Islam. They are seen AS NOT being able or EVEN BEING WILLING to confront the "west".
The jihadi sees 4GW as a remedy to their predicament. 4GW will not just be an adjunct to conventional military operations, it will be THE MEANS by which future wars will be fought by the "flea".
[when I speak of the "flea", I am of course thinking of a famous book on guerilla warfare entitled, "War of the Flea".]
A means to confront the west successfully and triumph. ON a grand scale eventually [a very long term eventuality], on a more minor scale in the short term.
According to the Treaty of Westphalia [1648], warfare was to be strictly the purview of the governments of the nation-state system. Thanks to the jihadi and 4GW, this is no longer the case.
War can NOW be waged by entities other than the governments of the nation-state systems. And waged most successfully too!!
A series of factors, other than Islamic impotence in the conventional manner, have made fourth generational warfare possible.
These factors would include, but are not limited to:
* Large numbers of willing disaffected individuals who are willing to be recruited, trained, fight and die for the cause [numbers].
* Rogue nations willing to countenance and to give refuge to jihadis [hosts].
* Petro-dollars [drug money too!!] in abundance, allowing for financing of jihadi activities on a massive scale [financing].
* Availability of sophisticated weaponry once only the reserve of the most technologically advanced nations [weapons].
* The internet and other sophisticated and almost instantaneous forms of communications [coordination].
A whole host of groups currently engage in 4GW. Include, but are not limited to:
* Terrorists.
* Drug Cartels.
* Street Gangs.
[there was an instance a few years ago where an American outlaw motorcycle gang purchased plague bacillus from an independent lab. What reason? To intimidate law enforcement and prevent governmental interference in the gangs' criminal enterprise. JUST HAVING the bacillus in their possession, and having the government KNOW that the gang possesses such a weapon of mass destruction is enough to allow the gang to achieve it's goal!!]
* Revanchists.
"We appear to be returning to the situation that characterizes most of human experience, where both states and non-states wage war. In 4GW, at least one side is something other than a military force organized and operating under the control of a national government, and one that often exploits the weakness of the state system in many parts of the world."
These groups, as part of 4GW, employ methods, tactics, techniques that while not new, are THE PREFERRED MEANS for 4GW practitioners. These methods, tactics, and techniques include, but are not limited to:
* Bombings of civilian targets with malice and aforethought.
* Counterfeiting.
* Drug smuggling.
* Illegal immigration.
"The distinction between war and peace will be blurred to the vanishing point. It will be nonlinear, possibly to the point of having no definable battlefields or fronts. The distinction between 'civilian' and 'military' may disappear."
[well, this fits in well with the idea of the polar opposite war-peace sliding scale continuum, does it not?? Such a concept already exists as a means of thinking of war. This is not new.]
4GW, as with all forms of warfare, DOES have a political side to it.
"War is politics by other means - - Clausewitz."
"War is two groups of people, using arms, each trying to impose their will on the other."
4GW practitioners are trying to impose their will by force. Primarily through the use of terror, in actuality, or threatened.
"the purpose of terror is to terrorize - - Lenin."
With regard to technology, 4GW combatants are users of both unsophisticated technology and high technology both.
Both are readily available to WHOEVER has the money to pay. Conventional bombs of such size that they are only second in magnitude to atomic weaponry is available to the 4GW fighter, and are used!! I am thinking here of Oklahoma City, the Marine barracks in Beirut, etc.
Think also that the 4GW practitioner uses a mix of technologies to attack the "big dog". An internet attack one day, a bomb another day, threats another day, a riot the next day, the spreading of rumours yet another day, etc. Multiple forms of very cheap, low level but efficient attack is available to the 4GW force. This has a big appeal to many in the what was once termed "3rd World".
4GW forces defeat their adversaries by sapping the strength, wearing down, and breaking the will of their opponents over a LONG period of time. "Resistance is futile" is perhaps the best way to describe the mental state the 4GW force hopes to impose upon their enemy.
And conventional military forces, the arm of the central government of the nation-state system, for the most part, are USELESS or next to useless in combating 4GW warfare. Aircraft carriers, ICBM's, tanks are what is NOT needed to defeat the 4GW enemy. You must have lots of intelligence, special operations troops, and a military that must operate to a large extent as a police force.
A whole bunch of disaffected persons throughout the world now see 4GW as the solution to their problems. 4GW warfare allows the "fleas" of this world to torment and defeat the "big dog". The "flea" imposes his will upon the "big dog" and gets his way, whatever way that is.
And with a proliferation of weapons of mass destruction [WMD], the means available to 4GW forces become even more deadlier. Just the threat of having such weapons used against a nation-state gives the leaders of the "central government" a lot of food for thought. Sleepless nights among responsible governmental authorities are surely the result.
A very small group of "warriors" dedicated to 4GW can have an influence ALL OUT OF PROPORTION TO THEIR NUMBERS.
4GW will be around for a long time to come. The 21st Century will be DOMINATED by 4GW.
coolbert.
I would concur with this.
NOT ONLY is the current conflict WW4, but this war is being fought with what is termed "fourth generation warfare" [4GW] [from the standpoint of the enemy we in the west are facing].
By fourth generation warfare [4GW] is meant war by a non-governmental entity. War by unconventional means.
[for those that are interested, first generation warfare [1GW] refers to the Napoleonic black powder type of warfare, second generation [2GW] is the shoot and move type of warfare as pioneered by the French in World War One [WW1], and third generation warfare [3GW] is defined as "blitzkrieg" warfare as practiced by the Germans in World War Two [WW2].]
The enemy in this current war, primarily the Islamic jihadi enemy, is resorting to 4GW as they have realized the impossibility of defeating the west by CONVENTIONAL MEANS. NOT ONLY that, the jihadi is in contempt of Islamic governments, so-called, throughout the Muslim world. Those governments are seen as being corrupt bootlickers of "western imperialism" and traitors to the cause of Islam. They are seen AS NOT being able or EVEN BEING WILLING to confront the "west".
The jihadi sees 4GW as a remedy to their predicament. 4GW will not just be an adjunct to conventional military operations, it will be THE MEANS by which future wars will be fought by the "flea".
[when I speak of the "flea", I am of course thinking of a famous book on guerilla warfare entitled, "War of the Flea".]
A means to confront the west successfully and triumph. ON a grand scale eventually [a very long term eventuality], on a more minor scale in the short term.
According to the Treaty of Westphalia [1648], warfare was to be strictly the purview of the governments of the nation-state system. Thanks to the jihadi and 4GW, this is no longer the case.
War can NOW be waged by entities other than the governments of the nation-state systems. And waged most successfully too!!
A series of factors, other than Islamic impotence in the conventional manner, have made fourth generational warfare possible.
These factors would include, but are not limited to:
* Large numbers of willing disaffected individuals who are willing to be recruited, trained, fight and die for the cause [numbers].
* Rogue nations willing to countenance and to give refuge to jihadis [hosts].
* Petro-dollars [drug money too!!] in abundance, allowing for financing of jihadi activities on a massive scale [financing].
* Availability of sophisticated weaponry once only the reserve of the most technologically advanced nations [weapons].
* The internet and other sophisticated and almost instantaneous forms of communications [coordination].
A whole host of groups currently engage in 4GW. Include, but are not limited to:
* Terrorists.
* Drug Cartels.
* Street Gangs.
[there was an instance a few years ago where an American outlaw motorcycle gang purchased plague bacillus from an independent lab. What reason? To intimidate law enforcement and prevent governmental interference in the gangs' criminal enterprise. JUST HAVING the bacillus in their possession, and having the government KNOW that the gang possesses such a weapon of mass destruction is enough to allow the gang to achieve it's goal!!]
* Revanchists.
"We appear to be returning to the situation that characterizes most of human experience, where both states and non-states wage war. In 4GW, at least one side is something other than a military force organized and operating under the control of a national government, and one that often exploits the weakness of the state system in many parts of the world."
These groups, as part of 4GW, employ methods, tactics, techniques that while not new, are THE PREFERRED MEANS for 4GW practitioners. These methods, tactics, and techniques include, but are not limited to:
* Bombings of civilian targets with malice and aforethought.
* Counterfeiting.
* Drug smuggling.
* Illegal immigration.
"The distinction between war and peace will be blurred to the vanishing point. It will be nonlinear, possibly to the point of having no definable battlefields or fronts. The distinction between 'civilian' and 'military' may disappear."
[well, this fits in well with the idea of the polar opposite war-peace sliding scale continuum, does it not?? Such a concept already exists as a means of thinking of war. This is not new.]
4GW, as with all forms of warfare, DOES have a political side to it.
"War is politics by other means - - Clausewitz."
"War is two groups of people, using arms, each trying to impose their will on the other."
4GW practitioners are trying to impose their will by force. Primarily through the use of terror, in actuality, or threatened.
"the purpose of terror is to terrorize - - Lenin."
With regard to technology, 4GW combatants are users of both unsophisticated technology and high technology both.
Both are readily available to WHOEVER has the money to pay. Conventional bombs of such size that they are only second in magnitude to atomic weaponry is available to the 4GW fighter, and are used!! I am thinking here of Oklahoma City, the Marine barracks in Beirut, etc.
Think also that the 4GW practitioner uses a mix of technologies to attack the "big dog". An internet attack one day, a bomb another day, threats another day, a riot the next day, the spreading of rumours yet another day, etc. Multiple forms of very cheap, low level but efficient attack is available to the 4GW force. This has a big appeal to many in the what was once termed "3rd World".
4GW forces defeat their adversaries by sapping the strength, wearing down, and breaking the will of their opponents over a LONG period of time. "Resistance is futile" is perhaps the best way to describe the mental state the 4GW force hopes to impose upon their enemy.
And conventional military forces, the arm of the central government of the nation-state system, for the most part, are USELESS or next to useless in combating 4GW warfare. Aircraft carriers, ICBM's, tanks are what is NOT needed to defeat the 4GW enemy. You must have lots of intelligence, special operations troops, and a military that must operate to a large extent as a police force.
A whole bunch of disaffected persons throughout the world now see 4GW as the solution to their problems. 4GW warfare allows the "fleas" of this world to torment and defeat the "big dog". The "flea" imposes his will upon the "big dog" and gets his way, whatever way that is.
And with a proliferation of weapons of mass destruction [WMD], the means available to 4GW forces become even more deadlier. Just the threat of having such weapons used against a nation-state gives the leaders of the "central government" a lot of food for thought. Sleepless nights among responsible governmental authorities are surely the result.
A very small group of "warriors" dedicated to 4GW can have an influence ALL OUT OF PROPORTION TO THEIR NUMBERS.
4GW will be around for a long time to come. The 21st Century will be DOMINATED by 4GW.
coolbert.
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