Strategy; Know Your Enemy

An idea being shared to help us better understand the mind of the enemy. An argument for a new strategy, and a calling out for those who fight for our freedom to not give up and to see their enemy for who they truly are.

What does it take to win a war against an adversary who doesn't fear death and who doesn't fight "fair"?

What could a man fear more than death? More importantly, what could the adversary fear worse than death?

Our adversary fears nothing by all appearances, for they are faithful to their cause and willing to die, or sacrifice their women and children for the cause. The only way to truly discover what the enemy may fear is to have somebody on the inside; a spy who gets deep enough to be trusted as one of them. If you imagine that you can think as the enemy does than you would realize the only possible way you could feel fear is if you came to the realization that your cause was in vain; your faith would have to be shaken and then you will know fear.

Why must we depend more on strategy than force of numbers against our enemy?

The answer to this should be obvious but here is the elaboration; one enemy kills more of us with one IED than we kill them with an entire squad firing weapons. We must recognize how the enemy fights and find our own experts in guerilla warfare who can fight fire with fire. When a convoy travels have an aircraft following from above, gaining a bird's eye view on what is going on down below and seeing what lies ahead of the Ally convoy. The first couple vehicles should be up armored, preferably strikers, and the middle vehicles should also be up armored or strikers. After an IED goes off, (if it's not spotted ahead of time), have communication coming from above telling those in the convoy down below where the enemy has been spotted, (if possible). In every convoy have there be IED experts travelling along with a squad of Rangers'. This is for protection and support of the other soldiers' in the convoy. Once the enemy sees this system working for us they will start to become discouraged over the lack of kills they accumulate. All of their thought and hard work bringing in little value will force them to change their strategy. (Even if my suggested method above seems an unlikely prospect, the fact of the matter is we have to do something different than we have been doing). To do the same thing over and over again, while seeing that we suffer the same results every time is the sign of insanity, so let's not do this. In summary, let's not be insane, let's recognize the enemies' style, and let's adapt.

Why must we break their spirit and take their pride?

All they have is their pride, and faith in their cause, and once we take these from the enemy he has nothing. The question is; are we willing to do this and risk flouting our hypocritical good guy image? If we are not willing to break the enemies' spirit, so as to take their pride and the faith in their cause, then we cannot win.

And what of our own soldiers, you may wonder. What has the enemy discovered when it comes to defeating our brave warriors?

Well they know our fears, our predictable routines, and they surely know how to tear down our moral and break our spirit. Why does the enemy know these things? They see how our media shares everything and for the most part doesn't support our cause in fighting this war. The enemy sees how easily manipulated the American public is. They see how the average American civilian's number one fear is "what do other people think about me?" Or, "am I accepted by my peers?" This tells the enemy that our next generation of leaders is going to be weaker than those before, and they say "thus their resolve will be easier to dissuade." And they also see how easy information is to come by in our country. (We are thankful for our freedom, but the truth is the truth, and will not be sugar coated in this article.)

Our own soldiers will fight for our freedom even in the face of death. But they do have primary fears; they fear losing their families, and losing purpose in their lives. They grow weary in having to leave their spouses and children every other year, and seeing no end to the waging war in sight. They grow frustrated when they see little positive change within the land where they fight.

Our warriors learn the routine, and they see their leaders making the same mistakes over and over again. They grow frustrated when they see many of their undeserving peers becoming the next generation of leaders. They take notice on how one does not gain promotion in the Army because of the hard work they do, or how good of a job they do. Nor does a soldier earn a raise when they are placed into a position which should be worked by somebody higher ranking, even if they handle the responsibilities inherent in that position. When many of our next generation of leaders proves to be unable to provide purpose, direction, and the motivation necessary to accomplish the mission the moral of our young warriors decreases. When they see complacency at times and the mistakes being made by their superiors, their moral weakens.

The suicide rate is increasing rapidly in the United States Army; each year since we have been at war in Afghanistan the numbers have raised. Our Leaders' are trying to figure out why this is the case...The enemy is proving to be successful at breaking our spirit and taking our pride, one might assume.

What does it take to win a war against an adversary who doesn't fear death and who doesn't fight "fair"? In summary, KNOW YOUR ENEMY!

L.L Brunk