Irregular warfare

[tonyz]

A commitment to a shift but also a commitment to pursuit of core competence and development of new strategies to defeat subversion, coercion, economic and political warfare, etc., etc.,

Excerpt of irregular warfare annex below - complete summary at link.

Also, an excerpt from the introductory article from the Modern War Institute at West Point below

THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT JUST PUBLISHED A SUMMARY OF THE NATIONAL DEFENSE STRATEGY’S IRREGULAR WARFARE ANNEX. HERE’S WHY IT’S SO SIGNIFICANT.
Kevin Bilms | October 2, 2020

This week, the Defense Department released an unclassified summary of the Irregular Warfare (IW) Annex to the National Defense Strategy. It declares that, with respect to IW, the department will maintain “sufficient, enduring capabilities to advance national security objectives across the spectrum of competition and conflict.” Renewed focus on great power competition suggests a shift away from counterterrorism and counterinsurgency missions, but no one should interpret this shift to imply the wholesale abandonment of the relevant toolsets and expertise of IW.

Instead, the IW Annex represents an approach to state competition that is attuned to the competitive landscape and hostile states’ strategies against the United States. Adopting this approach requires rethinking what constitutes IW, how IW fits into interagency frameworks for competition, and the ability for IW to proactively contest malign activities short of conflict.

https://mwi.usma.edu/the-defense-dep...o-significant/

Annex:

SUMMARY OF THE IRREGULAR WARFARE ANNEX TO THE NATIONAL DEFENSE STRATEGY

Irregular warfare is an enduring, economical contribution to America’s national security, and will remain an essential core competency of the U.S. Department of Defense.

The character and form of war are constantly changing, yet its fundamental nature remains the same. Though Great Power Competition is now our primary national security challenge – a departure from conducting almost two decades of continuous irregular war against violent extremist organizations worldwide – the requirement for mastery of irregular warfare persists. Far from abandoning these critical competencies, we will sharpen these capabilities for application against peer competitor, nation-state adversaries.

This summary of the Irregular Warfare Annex to the National Defense Strategy explains that irregular warfare is to be institutionalized as a core competency with sufficient, enduring capabilities to advance national security objectives across the spectrum of competition and conflict, in alignment with the NDS. The Department will employ these concepts and capabilities in a resource-sustainable approach to dictate the terms and tempo of competition to prevail against all global adversaries short of war, and build and sustain our global advantage in careful coordination with allies and partners. Should war come, these capabilities will shape the environment to ensure combat dominance and our ability to end any conflict on our terms.

Consequently, the Department of Defense will: (1) make permanent the mindset and capabilities necessary to succeed in its current irregular warfare mission sets; and (2) leverage all irregular capabilities in our arsenal, including the unique abilities of our interagency and foreign partners, to compete against revisionist powers and violent extremist organizations alike. This approach does not require significant new resources to meet our strategic vision; it requires new ideas and new means of employing existing capabilities.

We must not — and will not — repeat the “boom and bust” cycle that has left the United States underprepared for irregular warfare in both Great Power Competition and conflict. Americans expect their military to do more than react to crises, they expect us to compete and maintain our advantages.

https://media.defense.gov/2020/Oct/0...gy-Summary.PDF

[Box]

The long term success of that effort hinges on the results of this election.

[doctom54]

Originally Posted by Box

The long term success of that effort hinges on the results of this election.

No Sh!t.

Almost everything hinges on the next election.

Well except beans, bullets and commo for my family and friends.

I think if Trump wins we have just pushed "the can down the road" a while.

[Flagg]

Originally Posted by Box

The long term success of that effort hinges on the results of this election.

No truer words have been spoken.

After 20 years of the west being on the receiving end of the same successful non-kinetic Cold War efforts(political, financial, cultural) to shatter the Warsaw Pact and Soviet Union, it will be nice to get back on the offensive against peer threats.

[Penn]

I think if Trump wins we have just pushed "the can down the road" a while.

Agreed, nothing is more disappointing, then the affirmations of flag officers allegiance to left leaning socialist politicians.

[Texas_Shooter]

Originally Posted by Flagg

No truer words have been spoken.

After 20 years of the west being on the receiving end of the same successful non-kinetic Cold War efforts(political, financial, cultural) to shatter the Warsaw Pact and Soviet Union, it will be nice to get back on the offensive against peer threats.

I try to tell people that this is what we get for meddling in other countries politics for 70+ years. What did they expect that we were immune to the same kind of outside influence. They should be thankful we aren't to the armed coups...yet.

[Box]

Originally Posted by Texas_Shooter

They should be thankful we aren't to the armed coups...yet.

We must be watching different news outlets. I'm watching violent felons attack the police while the democrats bluster for defunding the police for responding.

I'm seeing gunfire in middle America
I'm seeing homeowners arrested for defending their homes
Candidates for elected office have declared that they are waiting to eagerly send armed federal troops to your house to confiscate your property.
Violent gangs ran an entire police precinct out of their station and democratic leaders are ordering emergency services to stand down while bands of violent thugs loot business and set the town aflame...

...admittedly, I'm using DirecTV with a slow internet connection so my communications infrastructure is pretty substandard so maybe I'm just spending too much time watching South Park reruns on Comedy Central

[Texas_Shooter]

Originally Posted by Box

...admittedly, I'm using DirecTV with a slow internet connection so my communications infrastructure is pretty substandard so maybe I'm just spending too much time watching South Park reruns on Comedy Central

It's funny you bring up South Park because how can a generation raised on South Park and Simpsons be so sensitive?

By coup I mean people marching on governor mansions and legislative branches

[Razor]

Originally Posted by Texas_Shooter

By coup I mean people marching on governor mansions and legislative branches

The smart insurgent first dismantles the state's security system (attritting the police) before attacking the resulting defenseless leadership. From all the recent attacks on police, their vehicles, and their buildings, I'd say the coup stage is being set.

[Box]

Originally Posted by Texas_Shooter

It's funny you bring up South Park because how can a generation raised on South Park and Simpsons be so sensitive?

This is a question I have been waiting SO long for someone to answer. How can a generation raised on South Park and Simpsons be so sensitive? A very nuanced question whether you realize it or not and it actually feeds into why Irregular Warfare is going to be so important moving forward as well as the type of people that we will need if we really want it to be successful. My response will take some time and thought...


...I'll be back

[tom kelly]

It is critical, If Trump is reelected the "Can just gets kicked down the road", However if the Communist/Socialist Democrats win or steal the election the SHTF begins in real time the best organized group will prevail. The Communist/Socialist Democrats will probably lay low for President Trump to leave office "PEACEFULLY" so they can seize power & take the U S A for their stated agenda. There are a lot of possible outcomes for the country's post election results. I do not think this is going to end with President Trump being re-elected. The Deep State actors are still in place & secure with nothing to fear for their crimes. The CCP developed the Covid-19 virus in a bio-weapons lab in Wuhan, China and "Inadvertently" released the virus to the world, a blatant act of war, that China got away with, SO FAR....If Biden gets elected, China wins big. THOUGHTS !!!

[bubba]

Tom, I think you have a valid assessment of the likely election outcome.

If / When the CCP’s puppet is sworn in, the course that our Founders put us on in 1789 will likely be realized. I take solace in knowing that ~50% of the population “still” “gets it” and that is the group who is armed and ready.

The fortunate thing from an ASCOPE / BFA of the communists says that urban centers are their strong-holds. Rather than use a “Baghdad thunder-run” strategy I’d be more for a “Raqqa siege” attempt. The commies won’t last the first winter with no heat, food, or supplies. Let them rot.

But hey.... DJT may just win and put the commies in Jail where they belong.....

[1stindoor]

I'm not so sure the can will get kicked down the road; maybe just parts of it. I suspect that after DJT wins re-election (I'm projecting confidence) the anti-everything Trump/Republican/Conservative, etc. will be in a near fanatical/zealot state and we'll see more protesting and wailing and gnashing of teeth turn violent.

[Box]

So…
Before the thread drifts TOO far off the topic of “IW” it feels like it is time for me to offer my own IW version of “Charity Begins at Home” lets call it “Irregular Warfare Begins at Home”

It has come up a few times – but for those that are really interested in the guts of a thread like this, I recommend looking at “Imagining the impossible: Insurgency in the USA” - It pairs QUITE nicely with the IW theme of this thread when taken in the proper context.

Irregular warfare may be an enduring, economical contribution to America’s national security – but our policy makers spend so much time war gaming all of our external threats that we have completely dismissed our internal threats. Violent Marxist organizations like BLM and AntiFa are quite literally kicking in doors in Middle-America and they are doing so with the full support of top democratic elected leaders that publicly, willingly, and proudly, kneel in support of those efforts.

If IW is really an essential core competency of the U.S. Department of Defense, then those same IW policy writers need to ponder our counter-IW policy as part of that strategy and we need to take at least a brief look inward to ponder our vulnerabilities...
- An admitted communist was able to not only infiltrate, but climb to the very top of our intelligence community
- He then conspired with political operatives and the head of the FBI to help fabricate and prosecute fraudulent evidence against an elected president.
- This information was later used to support an impeachment attempt of a seated president
- All the while our nations democratic legislators looked the other way and used this mans newfound CNN/MSDNC celebrity status to fuel their narratives

This effort used additional evidence culled from events that FACTUALLY occurred during VP Biden's time in Ukraine during a corrupt administration that used the IRS to target political opponents - pressured banks to target industrial opponents - funneled illegal weapons to Mexican drug cartels - and built the cages that illegal immigrants were housed in so those pictures could be used later to help smear his successor.

All of these - FACTUAL events conducted during the Obama administration and aided by VP Bidens family as they used his position to financially enrich themselves using their familial access to VP Biden and his influence with president 0bama. Not long after these FACTUAL events occurred, one of our nation’s most celebrated Admirals spoke out in support of that very same communist and the Presidential Candidate that was being supported by this fraudulent scheme while simultaneously speaking out against a seated president. That same Admiral repeated his public attack on the seated president by publishing a follow-on OpEd to reaffirm his support and publicize that he has now voted for that same corrupt VP to become our next President. Ladies and gentlemen, I present you you, Irregular Warfare at its finest – right here at home.

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Clause and even his Elves know that a real IW campaign begins at home…


Your mileage may vary.

[Trapper John]

Originally Posted by Box

......... Not long after these FACTUAL events occurred, one of our nation’s most celebrated Admirals spoke out in support of that very same communist and the Presidential Candidate that was being supported by this fraudulent scheme while simultaneously speaking out against a seated president. That same Admiral repeated his public attack on the seated president by publishing a follow-on OpEd to reaffirm his support and publicize that he has now voted for that same corrupt VP to become our next President. Ladies and gentlemen, I present you you, Irregular Warfare at its finest – right here at home.

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Clause and even his Elves know that a real IW campaign begins at home….

Oh Nooooo.. Mr. Bill