 |
| Cromwell at the Battle of Naseby in 1645 Charles Landseer (Source) |
Yes, I know, duh, no kidding. But wait, there's more.
It's not just a question of throwing on some cammies and taking your rifle to the battlefield, ask this guy. You need organization, not just having selected folks who are in charge, think NCOs and officers. You also need a way of keeping track of everybody, paying them (if that's going to be a thing, and really, it needs to be, most folks will fight for their home for free, but someone else's home?), you also need to feed them, make sure they clean up after themselves (do you really understand the amount of crap people generate in a day, there won't be Porta-Pottys at the front, nope, think hole in the ground), what happens if they get wounded or get sick (the latter being more likely than you'd think), yup, you're going to need medical personnel.
There's a reason for the old adage of "Amateurs study tactics, armchair generals study strategy, but professionals study logistics." Battles don't last that long, most of the time your troops will be waiting (eating and crapping everywhere), or moving from Point A to Point B (on foot, clogging up the roads and tiring themselves out, or by vehicle, really clogging up the roads and introducing the need for fuel of some sort, electric cars need not apply).
Someone needs to decide where the troops are needed most, for that to happen in a reasonable manner, you need intelligence sources. Spies, reconnaissance units, aircraft (manned and/or unmanned), and other means of finding the enemy then determining whether they should be attacked, or if you should start preparing defences.
A bunch of guys in cammies and armed with rifles are not infantry. Nope, infantry have been trained to work together as a team, they also have support weapons like crew-served machine guns and mortars. They are also trained to work with other infantry groups and folks manning tanks, and artillery, and friendly air, etc., etc.
War ain't simple.
War isn't just about fighting, in fact, that's really only a small part. Most people who have "been there, done that, got the DD Form 214" will tell you that the military is often hours of sheer boredom interspersed with minutes of sheer terror.
I plan to explore this topic further, but not tonight (which is Tuesday night as I write), for the day was long and the paying job was very busy. Though enjoyable, it left little time for writing. So I will leave you all to discuss this at your leisure in the comments.
Auf Wiedersehen, au revoir, arrivederci, and see ya later.
I'll be back ...
A lot of folks these days have this "Rambo" image of themselves in their minds. They seem to think they can go all "Lone Wolf" against any odds and win. Hollywood warrior mentality. What they didn't get out of that first Rambo movie (I didn't bother to watch the sequels) was why he was the way he was. He had all the training, and nothing to lose. When you have nothing to lose, everything changes. You know that sooner or later, you're going to die, and you accept that as fact. From there it is just a matter of killing as many of them as possible before they kill you. That Hollywood warrior mentality assumes immortality, which is of course idiotic. The reality of death, (and your own mortality) doesn't really hit home until you see it, up close and personal.
ReplyDeleteWar is hard, cold and brutal. To succeed you have to become hard, cold and brutal. War is in the mind and once there, it never leaves.
The world is the way it is today because too few have seen war, or its' effects in any way except how it's portrayed (sensationalized) in action movies. The internet is full of keyboard warriors who talk about things like how we should become more actively involved in Ukraine, and should definitely establish a "no fly zone", because it's worth the risks, to teach Putin a lesson. Starting WW3 isn't going to teach anybody a lesson that's going to do them any good, and it certainly isn't going to save the people of Ukraine. It's just going to get everybody else killed, too.
The idiot in the story at the link has a wife and son at home, and he wants to go and fight in somebody else's war? Unbelievably stupid. You fight first for your home and family.
I read somewhere that the Ukraine military is turning down civilians who are volunteering to fight, I'm sure for the very reasons you lay out above, Sarge. Untrained combatants just get other people killed. Even skilled warriors generally can't just jump into another unit without learning how their command and control works. That's why so many militaries around the world do cross training exercises, to learn how other units work. (That is also why it usually ends up being a clusterfuck. Ask me how I know.)
Sleep with your rifle in your hands and your helmet for a pillow, and follow orders without question, and you might get out of this alive. Or you're just cannon fodder, it doesn't really matter. You've got nothing to lose anyhow, right?
War only makes sense in 2 cases; when you've got nothing to lose, or when you have everything to lose if you don't fight back.
How do we get this message across to the media and then to the general population? The school system certainly doesn't get it. Old Guns
DeletePatrick - Spot on, amen!
DeleteOG - If I could figure that out ...
DeleteOG; the "media"are largely composed of the enemy. The way you "get this out" is via blogs like this one.
DeletePatrick's comments are spot on.
Boat Guy
But is it enough?
DeleteOne comment at that link, "Everyone wants to be a soldier until it's time to do soldier stuff"........all too true for so many people not exposed to or even have a concept of hardship and deprivation, "Oh look, no running water or working toilets!"
ReplyDeleteYup, soldier stuff. Digging holes, sleeping rough, getting shot at, marching in one direction, then back the way you came. Soldier stuff.
DeleteIn the world of ship's engineering spaces, the boredom is good. It's the not boring that becomes way too exciting.
ReplyDeleteEven in peacetime, a lot of what the military does is inherently dangerous.
I would think that boring is good, real good, down in the engineering spaces.
DeleteBoring is good in CIC, too.
DeleteTrust me.
Yes, yes it is!
DeleteBoring is a luxury on the DMZ, as well.
DeleteOh yes.
Delete(Don McCollor)...Then there are those moments of sheer terror. Back in the late 50's or early 60's a DEW line radar picked up what appeared to be dozens of incoming Russian ICBMs in flight. What the radar was picking up were returns off the rising Moon (but delayed for several and a fraction transmission pulses because of the distance, so they appeared to be much closer). Fortunately, the ballistics computer refused to calculate either launch or impact points. It was a very tense time for a while at NORAD...
DeleteNot the first time a computer has glitched, won't be the last either. As people push towards more autonomous systems the problem will get worse. Computers can only do so much, I see that every single day.
DeleteSarge - Oddly enough Sun Tzu wrote a great deal about war, which we seem to have (for the most part) promptly forgotten over the years, only to have it reconnected into our consciousnesses time and time again by bitter experience.
ReplyDeleteSome suggestions:
1) Stop Making War Entertainment, or at Least Stop Making War Entertaining: To Patrick's point, war in our society is exciting, glamorous, and largely discomfort and consequence free because our entertainment - movies, television, games - make it so. That goes two ways of course, not only making war entertaining but allowing ourselves to be entertained by it (this is a struggle I constantly have; there should be something inherently wrong with me sitting down on the couch to "enjoy" a military assault).
2) Give a greater understanding of military life - The lives of the professional military are largely removed from the lives of the rest of citizenry (myself included). I have friends and acquaintances who have served and occasionally I catch a glimpse of what they are dealing with, but not very much. I do not really have a good way to do this, but I think it might be helpful.
3) Teach History - Yes, I know: if we are tilting at windmills, why not tilt at all of them? Still, history is a great reminder of why (on the whole) war is often a bad idea.
4) Give everyone the same experience - At the risk of igniting a fire storm of discussion (and the attendant discussions of the differences between a drafted military and a professional military), reinstate mandatory military service for everyone, including us old guys that never did it the first time. I would imagine there is nothing like first hand experience of going on exercises, digging holes, living without running water, or no toilets (although to be fair, you can get that backpacking as well) to give everyone an actual idea of what "being in the military" actually means.
5) Make society work - One thing that can (wrongly) attractive to people is that violence (war in this case) makes things happen in a way that civil society does not. People violently protest - and are rewarded by the policies they espouse being put into place. The message becomes that violence works and "working through the system" does not. Reversing that to "violence never gets you what you want" might change how people understand the use of force.
Pretty weighty thoughts for a Wednesday. But thanks for making me think them.
Some excellent points there, TB.
DeleteFellow TB, I don't care for the idea of a conscript military in wartime, but I strongly agree with mandatory military service. I served in the Navy, so I'd be of limited use in ground combat without some serious training (more so because of my age); even so, I have served in a military service, and that puts me a bit ahead of lifelong civilians, if only because I understand the regimentation, need to follow orders immediately, and the like.
DeleteI was 23 when I joined. At the time, I'd had my own place for several years, paid rent & other bills, lived with a woman with a couple of kids & kept them fed & clothed. I thought I was a grownup; I found when I joined the military that I'd still been a kid, playing at manhood. The Navy made me grow up, and fast, and I think that's sorely lacking among a lot of young adults (legally adult, at least) today.
--Tennessee Budd
Sorely lacking nails it.
DeleteThat is why the Fleet Train is so big. The Fleet can't do anything without them.
ReplyDeleteDitto for all the other logistics outfits.
DeleteI suppose we'll have to put the idea of the 'modern' Russian army under Gerasimov as having evolved to fight modern Hybrid wars with its flexible doctrine and modern weaponry on the back burner. It looks a lot like the Eastern Front 1943 again. I wonder if there are the equivalent of NKVD battalions to ensure the troops are 'enthusiastic' when they attack? One thing is fairly sure, The rest of Europe is going to rearm and spend more on defense and security. I'm not sure how the Oligarchs will like it when the reality of not being able to travel the world and access their bank accounts really hits them.
ReplyDeleteRetired
Putin screwed up, that's all there is to it.
DeleteI have said for a couple of decades that the trouble with the US is that if you are not in the military, or have a close loved one in one of the armed services, the general population just doesn't "get it." One of the reasons why the folks who were alive during WW2 are called "The Greatest Generation" is because they learned that during a war, everyone has to sacrifice in order to win. And no one should go to war unless the idea is to win. No matter what it takes, no matter how hard it is, the goal is to win. To soundly, completely, without hesitation, pound the enemy into the ground and into total all encompassing defeat.
ReplyDeleteIn order to accomplish that, everyone has to sacrifice. Food, plastics, fuel, time, money, medical supplies, all have military usages. Just go look at what was rationed during WW2.
In all of the recent conflicts from Korea through Afghanistan, there was no need or call to give up anything to "help the boys overseas win the war". And, in my opinion, we have not "won" any of them.
Some place I read that hard times make hard men, that hard men lead to soft times, that soft times lead to soft men. Soft men lead to hard times. Certainly seems somewhat true given all we are seeing on the world stage.
One lesson I learned courtesy of Covid is that logistics has a major impact on what can be accomplished. Try doing wound care with no dressings, or no gloves, or trying to clean hands with no soap or sanitizer. Try pre-pouring a med box with no pills available, not even available at the pharmacy. Because ALL of those are manufactured in some other country...or, are not being manufactured there anymore as the case may be for whatever reason. Many were shocked by a lack of TP two years ago...think about not being able to have stuff much more important than TP!! Plastic tubing for IV's for example. Look around at everything in your home that has plastic in it, then think about not having that item. Kinda scary, isn't it??!!
It's very scary!
DeleteHey Old AFSarge;
ReplyDeleteI have espoused just supplying the Ukrainians with munitions, and our "Betters" are calling for no fly zones and limited war and my farcebook feed is full of stories of people wanting to fight and I keep trying to put the brakes on it and I have been called a coward because I don't want to fight...Say whut? I see no reason to go fight over there, I have been to war and have seen the elephant and smelled the smoke and I know the cost and all these keyboard warriors have no clue what they are talking about. We have been involved in a low intensity conflict for 20 years and our troops need to focus on peer and near peer conflicts, we have missed several generations of weapons upgrades, and maintenance cycles and it chaps my ass that these clowns have no clue what they are taking about but they want to "go to war" like its a grand adventure. or a new cause.
I couldn't agree more, MrG. People calling for direct involvement in this Russo-Ukrainian War are idiots, they have no effing clue what they are asking for, nor the possible consequences.
DeleteThis Ukraine thing is just a distraction, albeit a distraction that can get far out of hand given the morons currently calling the shots. It's a handy distraction from inflation and supply troubles such as Suz mentions. MrG and others are right; you fight for you and yours.
ReplyDeleteUniversal military service? Not these days or this "military" certainly.
Boat Guy
Concur.
Delete