Command Deck . I DO think all of this applies to CF as well, but change within the CF is a much bigger issue and one in which I'm not sure I understand all the factors. "A warfighting function is a group of tasks and systems united by a common purpose that commanders use to accomplish missions and training objectives. Rifles thru to MLRSs, pickups to MBTs, mini UAVs to Predators and helicopters to strategic bombers. Rather, they are a heuristic model for understanding descriptively the way power can be directed to achieve ends on the battlefield. Easy stuff we were good at. I like your example of Lee and the South using his understanding of the "human domain": influence the population to put pressure on the President. Indeed, one could make the argument that in todays uber-professional and regimented American military, the only levels in which critical and creative thinking routinely happen are at the tactical level.[xxvi]. At the same time, an integrated sustainment network would link . Training them, advising them in raids (and in taking control of territory and then dealing with the inevitable retribution, extra-legal justice, and power struggles), especially in austere conditions, may well require a special task organization (i.e. Perhaps the tools used to understand the world change but the basic overlying concept is the same, the need to decipher situations and people and trends. B. flower cultivation was indicative of a society with leisure time. On a personal note, I remember when I was in Iraq in 2003, 2004/05, all the internet cafes on the FOBs that allowed our troops lots of free time when they were back inside the wire to communicate with family, friends etc. You and I are not using logical in the same way, your use of the word seems to be more rigid than mine, probably because I make things up and don't worry too much about formal definitions. Or, 2. I assume. Well, enough with my psychobabble for now. Also see his book: Wrong Turn: America's Deadly Embrace of Counterinsurgency. 7 . This being, whether they know it yet or not, our young folks' generational project, which has just begun. Francisco Pizarro, motivated by legends of treasure, captured the Inca ruler Atahualpa during their first meeting. It discusses the role of the Marine Corps component commander and staff, their functions, and their relationships to the joint force commander and the other Service components. For all the efforts at "understanding the culture" of the environments we are working it failed and I mean totally failed because we did not "understand the culture of the enemy". When I was able to get a BCT to change their behavior every single day ---then we started getting a changed battlefield as we were forcing the insurgent to delay or stop planned attacks until they figured out why we suddenly changed---plain old fashioned UW that has not changed much in the last 100 years. How to Protect Mass Graves? Let me expand on this somewhat by providing a broader context: The goal is to transform the lesser and remaining outlier states and societies along modern western lines; this, so that they might better benefit from and better provide for the global economy. I call this approach the sublime[xxxiv], borrowing the term from Curtis Whites book wherein he implores America to turn away from assuming science holds the answer to everything and instead to be antagonists to the status quo in intellectual orthodoxy [and to be] advocates for change[xxxv], And so we are stuck in an awful position: we want our cake (a 7th WfF) and we want to eat it too. At the operational level and high tactical levels,[xl] however, senior NCOs and field-grade officers are increasingly institutionalized and are thus progressively more intertwined within the bureaucracy in terms of how the organization thinks, plans, communicates, and acts. What are the command and control warfighting function tasks? Combat Power is, in and of itself, an abstraction, but the military has given this abstraction a formula to make it more real and quantitative, theoretically taking the ambiguity out of assembling functions together for the making of war and allowing a more checklist-like approach. For example, Joint Publication 3-12 characterizes cy-berattacks as a form of fires,29 similar in principle to artillery or machine-gun fire, that de- Great points, as always Bill. The opposition in AF are not fit, they are poorly trained and they have clapped out gear. where there is no, as yet, defined and identifiable enemy. These same characteristics can be strengthened through our doctrine and education systems, if not our personnel system, and they match up perfectly with Curtis Whites concept of the sublime. Carefully read the passage and choose the best answer for the question that follows. Sustainment determines the depth and duration of Army operations. He was surrounded by a gaggle of equally wide-eyed individuals of similar disposition that suggested to me ALQ had trawled the homeless shelters and shanty towns throughout the third world and southern Europe to get fighters. For example, even if say an AQ affiliate is killing some of the local population in their attacks on the government why is it they still find resonance/support in portions of the same attacked population---we never did attempt o understand that in Iraq. The Theory of War (Continued) Offense Contributes striking power. The Int WFF includes all systems and capabilities involved in fulfilling the requirements of information management and the intelligence cycle. A warfighting culture is exactly that, it's a culture. In spite of the achievements and predominance of the two civilizations intact after Columbus arrived in the New World, they found themselves at the mercy of the Spaniards during the sixteenth century. [xix] The idea that one can tell at a glance what needs to be done and, although usually applied to looking at terrain, some, including Clausewitz, have used it to describe something beyond just terrain. without the aid of references STATE the seven warfighting functions (yall should study this one hard), employment of forces in the operational area, through movement in combination with fire, Use the weapon to kill, shape the battlespace, and set conditions to be advantageous, Provides commander with understanding of the enemy and battlespace. For all the efforts at "understanding the culture" of the environments we are working it failed and I mean totally failed because we did not "understand the culture of the enemy". Integrate all forms of Army, joint and multinational fires. A war to resist westernization and to preserve or reinstate their more traditional/preferred way of life and way of governance.). In this manner, it is believed, we can continue to work to "transform" others, even in these times of austerity and achieve "staying power" through the training up and use of surrogates. I suggest we too may benefit by inserting a MIE multiplier into our MDMP. The seven warfighting functions are command and control, fires, force protection, information, intelligence, logistics, and maneuver. As I said in my comment above, Kilcullen's ecosystems seems to me to be another way of saying "this is the world as I understand it," which isn't really a new concept. The self, the psyche, must be involved somewhere. while surfing the internet and posting on such open and visible places as Facebook. The movement in Mexico is called the Autodenfensa---so it is a typical mission for SF---it would have been in fact a mission in the 60/70s---I have deployed with less information and holding the mission-- assist the locals. This forces SOFs into such missions as Village Stability Operations which, in effect, are designed to help separate a population from its present or traditional way of life and way of governance and to attach the population to a way of life and way of governance which is more in line with our way of thinking, our way of life and our way of governance. Not a single CF BCT going through the NTC or where in Iraq fully "understood" how the enemy thought, acted, eat, slept, communicated with themselves and outside related groups AND the local population---much in the concept of Kilcullen's "ecosystem". Current doctrine does not adequately address the moral, cognitive, social, and physical aspects of human populations in conflict. I was just going to pull that quote for another comment thread. I believe that SOF, or at least the Green Berets, should remain in the unconventional world and not get bogged down with the limitations the Conventional Army places on creative thinking. The difference is that equipment is easy to count, education is not. Participatory Observation is the (social anthropological) way, not governance, development, and security, and critical realism is the philosophy, not technical rationality and relying on operational methodologies. Democracy is a bottom-up political ideology. c. And know the kind of war that one is embarked upon. That we attempt to measure things is but one example of a greater issue: most, if not all, of our constructs remain uncritically accepted on faith by the vast majority of our force. This requires that we facilitate (1) the unhinging of these states and societies from their current and often age-old way of life and way of governance and (2) the attachment of these countries and populations to ways of life and ways of governance which are more similiar to our own. The Maya, who developed an astrological calendar that allowed them to grow crops in poor soil, were originally thought to be a peaceful people, but archaeologists have since determined that intertribal warfare brought about their decline. [vii] When combined with the other functions- movement and maneuver, fires, intelligence, protection, sustainment, mission command- and welded together through leadership, the Seventh is supposed to enable decisive effects and ultimately success on the battlefield. He was around twenty, Latino and born and bred in the Bronx. I must add that many would say that Special Operations is a separate Army Warfighting Function. Knowing the enemy as well as one's self and knowing those who one works with as been always the core of SF UW training---my point has always been while we tend to most of the time get the indigenous side right---it takes us awhile but we tend to get there in the end ---we fail though completely at understanding the enemy. Observation/surveillance is the only tool that allows for any UW cell to survive. [xii] The most important reason has to do with the prevailing conventional wisdom within the military about why Operational Iraqi Freedom (OIF) seemed to go so terribly wrong. "Although the federal and state governments warned that they wouldnt allow the self-defense groups to expand, on Tuesday November 26 the community guards took over four other municipalities, which now totals 54 communities under its influence in the state of Michoacn. The human domain![vi] This conversation happened, supposedly, in the context of a discussion about the Armys Seventh Warfighting Function (WfF),". Win friends and influence people? Learning, or reflection,-in-action, is described (in italics) after its antithesis in the article by a quote from Donald A. Schon: Professionals become- locked into a view of themselves as technical experts, [and they] find nothing in the world of practice to occasion reflection. Certainly a Bronx jihadi was unusual but most inhabitants of Afghan villages consider Taliban fighters with their Pakistani accented Pushto the mark of a foreigner for sure not a reason for immediate dislike such as an Arabic accent or a NY accent perhaps - but nonetheless in their minds eye they have little in common and even less respect for the landless refugees of Pakistan-born Afghans. For the purposes of simplification and clarity I will define the human domain, not in terms of its content (the other), but in terms of the missions or environment most closely related to the concept. I know this may sound conspiratorial- but it is largely emergent and unconscious- so it isn't insidious in a malicious way (no intent). Students at the SWCS routinely repeat higher's intent- to establish a "legitimate" government in Pineland, for instance, and they never once question the implicit factors that are driving our use of force in the scenario. [xxxii] And what were really talking about is internalized social change. Modern terrorists still target those they feel hold the power. The other says it is wholly wrong. The people who want to join the Civilian Defense movement are within their rights. Millions of tourists now visit Mexico and Peru to see the remnants of the Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizations. Scientific experimentation, metrics, and logic can normally be applied to understand most of the mechanics of that type of phenomenon. Ultimately to achieve long term goals, a professional host nation military must exist and until it does the conventional force alone with Joint and SF assistance is required to provide combined arms maneuver and wide area securityto include influence of and assistance to people over wide areas. And all this still ignores the fact that none of this has anything to do with the general idea that the officers leading these organizations, conventional or otherwise, have to be educated. Logistics 6. UW by the way can be boring as well as extremely hectic and then boring---whereas DA is so "in"----the thing of movies--whereas training and living with your troops on a daily basis and trying to move the ball forward just three centimeters is something that is of no interest to movie makers. If our young leaders of today had, as we may have had in our day, a good idea of what our national objective was, then might they be able to innovate, do mission command, and perform better? SW forces would be engaged in social influence and, if savvy enough, they would be engaged in internalization efforts through participatory observation (encompassing action, observation, learning, and influencing- influencing both the observed and the observers). In other words, the mission has only one solution: make local/paramilitary forces more lethal and reform local governance to distribute the political and economic power so that X does not consolidate power in the resulting imbalance that our support would createi.e. western-style nation building. MCDAPO Team; MCDAPO Current References; MCDAPO Studies; Contact Us; MCDAPO 101; Resources; Headquarters and Service Battalion. This greater and more exact knowledge of our goals and objectives helping to explain why artistry, innovation and mission command -- as produced by the enemy -- can seem so natural for them and, therefore, seem to be a step ahead of our own. The centrally-managed personnel system, the system of intellectual communication (doctrine-based), the acquisition and resources system (JCIDS), and the hierarchical nature of the military have combined to produce a largely tail wagging the dog sort of institution. [xli] If SOF is to be successful at the operational and higher tactical levels, absent a personnel system that allows for flexibility and mission focus, we must incorporate at the very least a rigorous testing and experimentation program to assist us in finding the right tools and philosophical approach for operating in the human domain. [xxxix] Some will argue vehemently that SOF values education, but in my experience the resources spent on education are a far cry from what is spent on equipping. Thus if we, as you say, did not shy away from explaining exactly what this generations' mission was (summed up as offense rather than defense), then might we see the greater innovation, artestry, etc., that we are looking for? I made a distinction for a few reasons: I am in the SOF community and am hoping to influence the SOF community as we begin an effort to more closely tie in with CF. Likewise, the concept that the Air Force and Navy dont have anything to do with humans borders on the fantastical. ), PhD The Sociology of Military Science, Bloomsbury Academic, 8 NOV 2012. [xxxix] To engage most effectively within the human domain- our SW forces should be supported with an education and training institution second to none. It seems rather outlandish to me and reminds me a bit of Marxist literature predicting the rise of the disenfranchised and the oppressed (workers of the world unite!). The DOD Command and Control Research has identified and developed a model with three distinct but closely interconnected domains Destroy the enemys physical ability to fight and they must surrender. They learn what that outpost will do by looking at that outpost, which if I get it right, is sort of RantCorp's point. Aztecs, Inca, and Maya who escaped the iron swords and gunpowder of the Europeans instead suffered the old world diseases that accompanied the explorers. Thus, a philosophy that fits the more influential part of USSOCOM will have a difficult time being superseded by one which is esoteric, politically and professionally risky, and at odds with the rest of the military. Today is the hour for citizen self-management. Complete discussions by all ranks and ages---and we ran MDMP even in the 60s but it was creative and free thinking for all until the team was comfortable with the solution. Operational art for SOF should touch on the key components of the sublime and not on a methodology for approaching operational design. The purpose of CIMIC is to coordinate with and support the various non-military elements of the operating environment. How does the textbook's discussion of Anglo-American settlers in the Ohio Valley support or challenge each of the historians' arguments regarding British policy? Protection. The intelligence warfighting function tasks facilitate the commanders visualization and understanding of the threat and other relevant aspects of the operational environment. Virtually everyone knows what our end-game objective is. Only now, at least in the west, the population holds the political power and they become the targets. It is this fundamental characteristic that defines land force operations. Human domains, or narratives, or strategic contexts, or ecosystems, or understanding situations, must, of necessity, begin with the self. As part of capacity building, engagement with Host Nation Security Forces (HNSF) may form part of the CIMIC aspect of the IA WFF area of responsibility. I am so tired of the on going six year debate about the "surge" being successful or what used to be called "human terrain system" and now "human domain". I would suggest even if you studied community dynamics in the Bronx, Marseilles, Cairo, Mogadishu, Khartoum, Jeddah or wherever these people came from it would do little to help you deal with the wayward inhabitant when he reached Afghanistan. Certainly an insight into the latter three can be gained from understanding the local culture. is one of education- great point. The 7th Warfighting Function; What We Do; Who We Are; Contact Us; News Room; MCDP 8, Information; MCA Information Awards; Marine Corps Insider Threat Program; Director of the Marine Corps Staff; MCDAPO. It is ironic that the Aztecs grew flowers because. The first being the political aspect of military operations and the second being tied to the firstthat democracy is a bottoms up political ideologywhere political power is rested with the people. AND if one does not believe that an insurgency does not learn from past events--just check the latest strategy statement from AQ issued Sept 2013. Maxwell said the War on Terrorism defined protection by entry control points, barriers, persistent ground surveillance system blimps, and even the technologically-advanced counter rocket, artillery. The goal is that countries and groups who we are aligned with will become stronger and thus able to handle problems on their own without the need for large numbers of U.S. troops, which arguably get in the way of long-term progress anyway. If one thinks about it, the 7th WfF and the human domain, defined as the totality of the physical, cultural and social environments that influence human behavior to the extent that success of any military operation or campaign depends on the application of unique capabilities that are designed to fight and win population-centric conflicts, [xi] border on tautologies. 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