Total War, most of our enemies can’t read but they understand the game far better then we do.

Total war, the operational concept initially contributed to German General Ludendorff in 1936, is to fully engage all the power and resources of a nation state against its enemies. Ludendorff, like Von Clausewitz, Napoleon and Sun Tzu before him came to understand that asking the soldier to fight a war while the nation attempts do business as usual results in total defeat.  The idea behind total war is simple, win at all costs and that means all cost to everyone,  not just the man in the field with his m-4. Total war is the equivilent of going all in a poker game, it’s all or nothing.

How is this accomplished?

Al Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden and his hired muscle,  Mullah Omar of the Taliban are conducting total war in Afghanistan as we speak. The Taliban on paper are not an overwhelming force by any means in fact if the Taliban were to field its entire fighting force for one set piece battle in classic western style the war in Afghanistan would be over in a matter of hours not days, weeks or years, which is exactly why it will not happen. Total war is warfare at is purest, it is the type of warfare we have not seen in the west since Sherman’s March, if you discount Curtis Lemays bombing strategy during World War II. In total war, no distinction is made between combatant and civilian, no resource is to be left to the enemy, no supplies, no water, no food and no population to reinforce his ranks. In total warfare, the tax base of a nation is just as likely a target as its tank or soldier, because the tax base pays for the tank and  the soldier, so total war recognizes that wrecking a country’s economy impares its ability to conduct a war against you. The more open the nation state’s economy the more peril it faces in total war. Going all in so to speak.

The stated goal of Osama bin Laden in 2001 was to bring the United States to its knees by bleeding it dry, not in terms of lives but in terms of money. Osama and his Taliban allies are of the opinion that the Soviet Union fell not because of Ronald Reagan’s speeches and military spending but because of the war in Afghanistan, and many economists agree that the overwhelming burden on the Soviet economy the Afghan Campaign coupled with the effective undermining of Soviet morale by the Mujahadin’s willingness to die, Radio Free Europe and the stinger missiles provided by the USA were larger causes of the collapse then Reagan’s rhetorical attacks.

Living with constant warfare from the moment of birth the typical Taliban fighter is less than 25 years old,  a local member of a Pashtun Tribe, his family has lived in the same village for 500 to 1300 years, to say he knows the territory is an understatement, he fights side by side with his brother and father, uncle and cousins, a high esprit de corp and unit cohesion through cohorting units are modus operandi for the Taliban.  The history of the Pashtun people is one of constant turmoil, and violence. Like in Vietnam the local people either harbor the guerilla fighters or die a quick death by summary execution for consorting with the enemy, so most will either support them openly or under the table based on the proximity to US forces. Sure some of our NATO allies are effective but look a the recent news that the Italian forces were paying the Taliban not to attack them, and when the Italians were replaced by the French in that sector the Italian Commander didn’t bother to inform the French of this fact. The result, eight french soldiers killed in one attack. So not only were the local people supporting the Taliban so were the Italians!

 

So you think you still want to fight in Afghanistan, and by that I mean you want someone else to fight in Afghanistan not you or your kids. But you do want the US Flag carried into the fight, but you don’t want to pay more in taxes? Ok, so let’s get this straight, the US Forces are engaged in a War which is now longer then our involvement in WWI and WWII combined, and you won’t go, and your kids aren’t going, who is fighting this war and more importantly who exactly is paying for it?

Now back to the Taliban, they are going all in this hand, all the chips are on the table. They are all fighting, if they can walk they fight, if they can’t fight they pitch in with everything they have, and I mean everything. Meanwhile back at the ranch, you’re watching the NFL on tv and complaining about your taxes, which are the lowest they have ever been in the history of the country while we were at war! But you want your neighbor to send his ass and his kids asses over to fight for you. Hell you might even say that the Hollywood anti war types are doing more for this effort then you are, and they are. They are paying more in taxes, and they are going over on USO tours to entertain our guys. Remember, if there is one thing the Army learned from Vietnam it wasn’t that you can’t fight local guerillas with popular support it was don’t let the media see what the hell is going on and do not under any circumstances draft people, those two things make the public pay attention to what you’re doing ten thousand miles away. If on the other hand you control the media (embedding) and you ask for all volunteer’s, don’t raise taxes then you can do whatever you want and the American people will not even question it. So here we are at the poker table of life and death that is modern warfare, sitting across from a professional poker player who is not only holding all the cards, he’s dealing em. He has all his chips on the table, his is all in, and he hasn’t even told us the rules of the game. We are looking at our cards, and think it’s a good hand but then again we don’t even know the rules of the game. Gee I am sure glad it’s not me, or my money at that table because that doesn’t sound fair at all.

So Mr. President, feel free to go all in after the hand is dealt just remember that the rules in war are made up as you go along, and that the chips are mens lives and the stakes couldn’t be higher, at least for the few chips we have in the game.  Sure you were dealt a bad hand by the prior administration who left Afghanistan in a hurry to get into a high stakes oil game in Iraq but you can’t blame them anymore. Mullah Omar and his boys will be back in the spring time with a vengeance, and the game they are playing is total war. Don’t even mention the fact that the Pakistani Army is pushing the Taliban for the first time, if you believe that Mr. President your more of a fool then the people at Fox News make you out to be.