The Art of War and Iraq

The Art of War is a classic and everybody's read it (except Bush aparently), etc. etc. That much we know. I thought it would be fun to look at the Iraq War and predict who is going to win based on verse 17 of chapter 3 of the Giles translation, which I do realize is outdated, but the Griffin translation is not available free online and neither is Cleary's.
"Thus we may know that there are five essentials for victory:
(1) He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
(2) He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces.
(3) He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks.
(4) He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.
(5) He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.

(1) Before the war many people predicted disastrous results that warned of getting stuck in a quagmire of fighting a counter-insurgency. BushCo. insisted that victory would be complete and that the Iraqi people would welcome us as liberators not rebuff us as occupiers.

(2)The U.S. military is currently over extended due to its involvement in the global "war on terror." Despite not having enough troops, equipment, strategy, advisors etc. for fighting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and supporting military operations in Pakistan, Columbia, the Philippines, North Africa, BushCo. still claims that we could beat down North Korea and Iran should the need arise.

(3) The troops want to protect their country and fight for democracy, but they also want to have shorter tours of duty and fewer of them. BushCo. and high-ranking members of the armed forces want to keep the troops in combat more and for longer periods of time. They also want to continue the kind of imperialist foreign policy that got us into the mess we are in now.

(4) The Army was not prepared to fight the wars that we are involved in now. They did not have the right training nor the proper doctrine to do the job that they were sent to do. They are scrambling to catch up and develop a new method of fighting a new kind of war. The Iraqi insurgency was ready to do for the moment that they heard "yellow cake uranium". They knew that we were coming and that the war would become a cause célèbre for would-be Islamic/Arab militants and guerrillas in the region. The insurgency is also ready to fight "the great Satan"(and maybe even Lord Satan).

(5) Even if you think that we had/have the military to win these wars, you cannot deny interference from the civilian leadership of the army. These wars are very political and are directed, in large part by politicians, not military men. When Bush delays planned military operations because he needs to get reelected or when troop levels are temporarily increased in an attempt to silence critics and/or gain political support for the GOP, the U.S. effort in Iraq suffers.

It seems to me that, according to The Art of War, the U.S. will not achieve victory in Iraq. I would love to hear others' opinions on the matter.

Some Thoughts on Iraq and the State of America Today

It's hard to think about Iraq these days. To begin with, it is very depressing to think about this war that my country started under false pretexts and the proceeded to almost completely lose, before they had even really started. Watching the nightly news two stories really popped out at me. The first was footage of street battles in Basra feature militia men dumping with their AKs and bombed out vehicles. Later in the program there was a story about a gun(wo)man or gun(wo)men shooting at cars on the interstate in Virgina, only the latest in a series of shooting sprees and reminiscent of the Beltway Snipers that terrorized the same region five years ago. My reaction was that it is a sad day when news from Iraq and news from Virgina are at all similar (while still very different).

Best Time Article Ever: So You Wanna Be a Hizballah Fighter?

Normally I wouldn't repost anything from Time or other products of the corporate culture industry, but I found this article which details the inner workings of one of the world's most successful "alternative civility"-based organization making it worthy of The Revolution Script. I find Hizbollah interesting(as an object of study) because it, like the Black Panthers, Young Lords and other influential social movements essentially has two branches. It's civil society branch functions as a counter-state, as described below fulfilling the traditional roles of government in which the Lebanese government has failed. It's "uncivil" society branch trains an army of resistance fighters and conducts operations against Israel using tactics which are now popular with Palestinian guerrillas. The legitimacy gained through the actions of the first branch allows the second branch to not only exist but operate succefully.

So You Wanna Be a Hizballah Fighter?

Hizballah's state-within-the-Lebanese-state -- its hospitals, schools, banking system and even its consumer goods stores -- is a closed society that's off-limits to outsiders. But no part of the structure is more closed and more secret than the military wing, access to which is extremely limited for an American journalist such as myself. But my assistant, Rami Aysha, grew up in Haret Hrek, the mostly Shia Muslim suburb of Beirut that is Hizballah's main stronghold in Lebanon, and at my request, he spoke to a few Hizballah fighters in his neighborhood, some of them former school chums, about the process by which they became members of the formidable anti-Israeli militia.
The two phases in the development of a Hizballah fighter are like Boy Scouts and Boot Camp. During the first phase, Hizballah recruiters keep an eye out for young Shia Muslim students in both Hizballah-run schools and the national school system. They look for energetic kids, violent kids, and smart kids, from the age of seven into the late teens, and begin taking them on field trips and workshops where they are given a through ideological indoctrination, and then as they get older, a brief introduction to the AK-47 assault rifle.
Two important themes stick out: from the beginning, the training stresses the path to martyrdom, which is achieved through honesty, prayer, and combat. And from the start, Hizballah organizes its child recruits into the basic cellular structure of the organization. Each is assigned to a cell of about five kids, with each cell having its own kid commander, and their own missions: usually games and exercises like treasure hunts. This stage ideological training can last for years, or it can be done in as little as 9 months, depending on the zeal of the recruits and how much free time they have from school.
Hizballah trainers constantly separate the wheat from the chaff. Those who pass all the ideological training tests, move on to learn the basics of warfare: weapons training and outdoor maneuvers for a total of at least 9 months, much of it in the Bekaa valley. All along the way, the trainers are on the lookout for those with special abilities. The lazy ones -- with the ability to sit for hours on end without getting bored -- are chosen as lookouts to watch Israeli troop movements; the brave ones are chosen for attacks, the smart ones are chosen for intelligence and security; and the smart and unpredictable ones -- the guys who don't look or act or behave at all like fighters -- get chosen for what is called reverse security, or counterintelligence.
When they graduate from military training, the new fighters are broken up and sent off to join cells out in the field or overseas alongside veterans. Of all the fighters, about one in ten is chose to be a commander, and goes to Iran for a few months of special training. The number of Hizballah fighters is a secret, but in a recent speech, the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, hinted that there are tens of thousands of them.

Though men make up the majority of Hizballah's frontline fighters, there are plenty of female fighters as well, mostly reservists. And even if don't carry weapons themselves, women are the ticking time bomb of Hizballah. They vote, and (especially if they are married to another member of the Resistance thanks to a Hizballah mating service) they'll give birth to the next generation of fighters.
--Andrew Lee Butters with reporting by Rami Aysha/Beirut

Danke an meine Genossen Deutsch!

Thanks to Google Analytics I am able to collect and analyze information pertaining to who visits The Revolution Script (don't worry nothing incriminating). Recently I got a hit from WAFFEN-online Foren, a German/Austrian gun-related forum. Despite the language barrier I discovered somebody had posted a list of links pertaining to the infamous Carcano Modello 1938 Moschetto Truppe Speciali, one of which was my post on said rifle. Good to see that my reputation is slowly growing. So thanks to my German reader who passed on the good word.

People seem to be equally split between considering me to be a joke and considering me a "domestic terrorsit, worse than Al-Queda" who is a threat to national security. Today I also happened across some commments on the liberatarian blog Government is not Your Daddy to the effect of the latter:

"I don’t need to prove anything to you, but here’s another violent lefty planning for violence. I’m glad I don’t live near him.

http://therevolutionscript.blogspot.com

You guys on the left are so peaceful…."

If my enemy's ignorance makes him think I am dangerous, who am I to argue otherwise?

New Manual: Ecodefence: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching

A comrade on Revleft suggested that I post some of ELF's "ecotage" manuals. After a little bit of poking around I found the third edition of Ecodefence: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching, a resource that had been recommended to The Red Son before. My comrade claimed that while it was written for use by Earth Liberationists, it contained methods that could be utilized for a great number of reasons. Looking through it, I would be inclined to agree. The organization/site that hosts the book, Omnipresence Collective provides lots of great links and other resources related to anarcho-primitivism, among other things. Their collection of resources pertaining to Direct Action should be particularly interesting for readers of this blog.

Call to Action: Oppose the Chinese Occupation of Tibet!

I am sure that you all have heard about the current growing unrest throughout Tibet in which upwards of eighty protesters have been killed by police and other forces of the state's repressive apparatys. This is only the latest in a series of repressive and potentially (depending on your definition) genocidal actions taken by the Chinese Government against Tibetans. I call on all defenders of the working class and of the repressed peoples of the world to oppose this action through use of your chosen methodology. The Tiben exile/refugee community in my area has been protesting, marching and gathering petitions on Main Street recently. Express your solidarity with a peaceful resistance movement against imperial occupation! This movement has recently become much more broad based as regular Tibetans joined in protest with monks whose brothers have been shot and killed in recent months.

Training Report: More Urban Environment Navigation and Some Words of Caution

On a recent late night/early morning excursion, I continued to explore the lay out of the small city in which I currently live. I discovered many more building with roof access from the outside, one with internal access and learned some valuable lessons.

After visiting my regular roofs, I decided to broaden my search radius as I have learned which roofs are accessible immediately surrounding my building. After spending some time on the ground surveying the potential benefits and risks involved with fire escapes and other means of access, I picked one that looked fairly straight forward, but in the end only allowed me access to a small area. My next target was near by, but required a bit more effort. I climbed up to the fire escape about ten feet up and had just hoisted myself up when I looked over and was an officer of the law. Luckily he did not witness my act of trespassing and I quickly dropped to the ground, extracted and resigned myself to making a second visit to the roofs that I regularly haunt. After that I was poking around behind some buildings when I noticed a camera, apparently equipped with low light imagery watching the backdoor of a restaurant. Earlier in the evening I had noticed a second security camera on a building where I had previously only seen one. Needless to say that this got me spooked, even more so by after finding two more cameras within twenty feet.

So what is the lesson in all of this? Where did I go wrong? To begin with I should have done extensive research during daylight hours, taking careful note of not only where cameras were installed but also which buildings house apartments and therefor potential witnesses. Additionally Saturday night, immediately after the bars close is not the best time to practice covert urban operations. Police patrols on foot and by car are stepped up during this time. Overall I was very lucky that I was not caught and arrested, next time I will go out much later and on a weeknight, after casing the area in question extensively.

Eco-Terrorism, ELF and Burning Down "McMansions"

Thanks once more to Anarchy and Social Movement for this interesting OP-ED about recent actions of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) burning McMansions outside of Seattle. I am interested what my readers think about this issue, are organizations like ALF and ELF "terrorists?"

ECO-TERRORISM: THERE’S NO SUCH THING

By Ted Rall Tue Mar 11, 7:57 PM ET

Property Rights Extremists Equate McMansions to 9/11 Victims

NEW YORK–The United States should not build housing. Whole neighborhoods in places like Chicago and Dayton and Oakland and Newark and Memphis are dominated by abandoned houses and apartment buildings. Ten percent of our national housing stock–more than 13 million homes, enough to put roofs over the homeless three times over–are vacant year-round. So why do we let developers bulldoze fields and forests to put up soulless monstrosities?

Several “model houses” at a development bearing the typically atrocious name of “Quinn’s Crossing at Yarrowbay Communities” at the edge of Seattle’s creeping suburban sprawl went up in flames, apparently torched by radical environmentalists. I had two reactions. First, I was reminded of my wonder that such things happen so infrequently.

Then I laughed. I wasn’t alone. Time magazine bemoaned “a notable lack of sympathy for the fate of the homes” among residents of Washington state.

Quinn’s Crossing, says its website, was “dedicated to the ethos of putting the earth first.” In this case, putting Mother Earth “first” led the developers in “energy efficient” 4,500-square-feet McMansions. “The houses are out in the middle of nowhere, on land that used to be occupied by beaver dams and environmentally sensitive wetlands; the site sits at the headwaters of Bear Creek, where endangered chinook salmon spawn,” reported Erica C. Barnett for the Seattle weekly newspaper The Stranger. “The houses, and their polluting septic systems, also sit atop an aquifer, which provides drinking water for the area’s Cross Valley Water District.”

4,500 square feet? My last Manhattan apartment had 725. Visitors (New Yorkers, most of whom live in even tighter quarters) cooed over how big it was. The house in which I grew up had 1,000; it was designed for a nuclear family of four.

What galled ELF was the developers’ attempt to pass off self-indulgent, gargantuan McMansions as ecologically friendly. “The builders heavily promoted the ‘built green’ concept and pointed out that the homes were smaller than the 10,000-square-foot houses on previous Street of Dreams tours,” reported The Los Angeles Times.

Barnett’s story asked: “Were the Terrorists Right?” She noted: “An energy-efficient mansion will never use less energy than even a large urban apartment.”

Right or wrong, they’re not terrorists.

The feds say they are. They call Earth Liberation Front, the loose-knit “group” that took responsibility for the blazes in unincorporated Snohomish County, the biggest threat to mom, freedom, apple pie and three-minute pop songs since the Soviet Union closed shop. Six months before 9/11, shortly before the famous “Bin Laden Wants to Kick Our Ass Six Ways to Sunday” memo, the FBI went so far as to list the ELF as a federally designated terrorist organization. Like Al Qaeda.

Terrorism–you can look it up–involves killing people. Hijacking a plane and flying it into a building is terrorism. Destroying property–property that, for the most part, made the world a worse place–is not.

ELF’s goal of “inflict[ing] maximum economic damage on those profiting from the destruction and exploitation of the natural environment” has inspired people to set fire to SUVs at a New Mexico car dealership, Hummers in California, and a Vail ski lodge whose construction threatened the lynx, an endangered species. Damage to the Colorado ski project amounted to $12 million.

ELF members are vandals. They’re arsonists. But they aren’t terrorists.

ELF demands that its adherents “take all necessary precautions against harming any animal–human and non-human.” Although it could happen someday, no one has ever been killed or hurt in an ELF action. Equating the burning of a Hummer to blowing up a child exposes our society’s grotesque overemphasis on the “right” of property owners to do whatever they want. The word “eco-terrorism” is an insult to the human victims of real terrorism, including those of 9/11.

The closest ELF’s critics come to landing a punch is pointing out that fires send crud into the atmosphere. “This is releasing more carbon into the air than they ever would have by building the houses,” the listing agent for one of the destroyed “rural cluster development” houses told The New York Times. Newsweek asked: “If their cause is to save the environment, how does burning houses, and thereby releasing carbon and toxins into the atmosphere, help achieve that goal?”

Eye-roll alert: A house fire releases air pollution once. A family living in a house does it day after day for decades. Anyway, why are builders making houses out of toxins?

Property rights extremists raised the same point after ELF set fire to 20 Hummer H2s at a California car dealership in 2004. “There’s a lot more pollutants from the fire than the vehicles would pollute during their lifetime,” said the West Covina fire marshal. Even if that were true, he forgot where those gas guzzlers would have eventually ended up: in landfills, their nasty chemicals seeping into the ground.

“Think of all the resources those fires wasted,” moaned Seattle Times columnist Jerry Large. He explained that lawful means–petitions, politely worded letters to the editor, speaking at public hearings–are the proper way to take a stand against the destruction of the environment. “The development where this latest arson took place, situated atop the area’s water supply, has been challenged by other groups, using negotiation and the law,” he says approvingly. That’s true. The local zoning board heard from hundreds of opponents of Quinn’s Crossing before voting, 4 to 1, in favor.

Challenged, yes. But not successfully.

(Ted Rall is the author of the book “Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia the New Middle East?,” an in-depth prose and graphic novel analysis of America’s next big foreign policy challenge.)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucru/20080311/cm_ucru/ecoterrorismtheresnosuchthing&itemid=20080
3120709420.0824598

Seven Firefights in Vietnam or How to Defeat a Technologically Superior Enemy

Once in a red moon a reader will contact me with a link or a reading recommendation, asking if I can post it here. The answer is almost always yes. Recently Seven Firefights in Vietnam by John A. Cash, John Albright and Allan W. Sandstrum was sent to me. The reader described the book thusly:

The content includes detailed accounts of various encounters and offensives by and against the Viet Cong throughout various stages of the war and is replete with pictures and maps. I have found it to be an invaluable resource for tactical analysis and and a great insight as to military operation and responses. I have provided a link and hope you will find it is pertinent as I have.

I have started to read it over and it does look quite useful. It should still be useful and relevant as the U.S. Army rarely learns from its mistakes. A lot of it is went over my head due to various military jargon, but I still got a lot out of it so far. This is yet another example of using what governments spends lots of time and money on for this opposite purpose, supporting revolution. If any other readers have anything else that they would like to contribute let me know and please include a nom de guerre so that I can given proper credit.

Tip of the Day: Collect Brass or Live off of the Waste of Capitalism

The part of the film Syriana that stuck with me most was when the Arab leader tells the American that "Waste is the friend of capitalism." The consumerism/capitalism convinces people to buy things that they don't need or even really want but then discard them while they can still be used, often so they can make room for more products they don't need or want. In addition, capitalism also encourages wasteful behavior. Because of this it is possible for those who do not wish to participate in an economic system that they oppose to survive by making uses of this "waste." I rescued my TV, my microwave, my couch, my bed, my coffee table, my ammo etc. for being discarded, and I am a fairly amateur dumpster diver, a hobby that some people are fanatical about.

Recently, I went to a shooting range and spent an hour collecting empty shell casing and collected around fifteen pounds of brass which I can sell to scrap yards for a pretty penny. While collecting brass I also found the following ammo, which will be added to The Red Son's stockpile: twenty five rounds of .22, two rounds of .223, and one round each of .380, .38, and one mystery round which I have yet to identify. Not a bad haul and a nice addition to my stockpile. I also collected redeemable bottles and a duffle bag full of books, which can be sold online. All of this items were free and only required my labor, which I am happy to expend. There are plenty of other ways to live for free or almost free, you just have to be resourceful .

A Farewell Message to Fidel Castro

One more picture to honor Fidel Castro at this time of transition for the leader and the island of Cuba.



A rough translation is "People of Cuba! The World Supports You!"

Thanks to Soviet Propaganda.net

Obama Wins Vermont Primaries; More Vermonters can now Arrest Bush and Cheney

I had great hope that after yesterday's four primaries, there would be a clear winner for the Democratic nomination. Unfortunately, the process is far from over. The good news is that Hilary Kleen-Ton did not win and the Obama carried Vermont with a twenty point lead. This made me happy because he is the candidate who I have reluctantly chosen to support. Also being voted on yesterday in the homeland were local ballot measures. In the city of Brattleboro and the town of Marlboro, "symbolic" measure were passed stating that Bush and Cheney would be arrested and tried for war crimes if they ever enter the limits of those places. I had previously posted about the selectboard of Brattleboro voting to put this on the ballot. I hope that Vermonters will continue to exert claims of sovereignty that supersede U.S. laws.

Gun of the Day: Mossberg 500 Just in Case (JIC)

This is maybe one of the better marketing ideas that have come out of the firearm industry. Basically, it is a Mossberg 500 with a pistol grip and an 18.5 inch barrel packaged in an airtight, waterproof container with a small survival kit. Mossberg says that it can be used for general emergencies, bear attacks, and taking out terrorists invading your home. But it has many more potential uses. Given probable upcoming changes in this country it might be a good idea to have a gun that you can bury. There is extra space in the container, so you can convert it to a "Open in Case of Revolution" kit. I would fill it with an extra set off fatigues, a multi-tool and knife (which are included in the Mariner version), cigarettes, a space blanket, extra ammo, a cleaning kit, and a copy of a guerrilla warfare manual.