Re: [GZG] Re: Re: Resources

On 8/5/05, Fred Kiesche <godel2escher2bach@yahoo.com> wrote:

> As for older books "going out of date", I have to
> disagree. Many of the basic principles set down 200 or
> more years ago are still valid today. 

Well, no.  Not really.

"There is only one tactical principle which is not subject to change. 
It is: "To so use the means at hand to inflict the maximum amount of
wounds, death, and destruction on the enemy in the minimum time."
--General George S. Patton, USA

Tactics changes wildly in reaction to technological developments.  The
Operational Art is somewhat more stable, but developments in the speed
of movement, communications technology, and RSTA capabilities make
modern warfare a whole new ball of wax from warfare in the age of
Napoleon and earlier.

I'm not saying that there aren't good and valid things to be learned
from study of military history, but for warfare at the lower level of
command, there isn't so much so.  And what is valid tends to be stuff
like basic leadership principles.  After all, the only thing that
doesn't change in warfare is the nature of the humans who conduct it. 
Although that can be influenced by the conditions of the war and the
training of the soldiers.

Sun Tzu's
> specific methods of fighting (swords, etc.) may not be
> used today, but many principles can be used in modern
> warfare. The same is true of Clauswitz or Patton or
> Rommel or Schwartzkopf or Franks...

The problem with Sun Tzu is that many people read him, memorize a
handful of aphorisms, and then think they understand him.

Clausewitz is even more universally misunderstood.  

For an interesting look at the both of them, see Michael I. Handel's
critical analysis, Masters of War: Classical Strategic Thought.  Read
that after reading a copy of the Howard-Paret translation of
Clausewitz.

On the other hand, there are some classics that still provide useful
guidance.  Major General Sir Charles E. Callwell's Small Wars is still
one of the best counter-insurgency manuals out there, if a little
bloodthirsty for modern tastes.  He deals with tribal societies not
mature enough to make the soldier/civillian distinction and so tends
to treat them all as belligerants.

Defense of Duffer's Drift is one of the most readable introductions to
light infantry platoon tactics I've read.  It predates automatic
weapons which introduce a level of complexity to the tactical equation
that wasn't previously present, but it is an intro.

There are more, of course.  But the simple fact is that modern warfare
is, at the tactical level, a whole new ball of wax that just doesn't
work the way it did as recently as WWII.

John
-- 
"Thousands of Sarmatians, Thousands of Franks, we've slain them again
and again.  We're looking for thousands of Persians."
--Vita Aureliani

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