Posted on 05/11/2003 4:38:03 PM PDT by VaBthang4
What strategy caused the Iraqi regime to collapse? What must the United States and Britain do to consolidate the fleeting gains of a historic military victory? PISRR: penetrate-isolate-subvert-reorient-reharmonize.
In the final years of his life, retired Air Force Colonel John Boyd (1927-1997) invented PISRR as a complement to his now famous OODA (observe-orient-decide-act) loop. Some PISRR elements describe what has happened so far in Operation Iraqi Freedom; others suggest what must come next.
From the outset of the 2003 Iraq war, Coalition armor, infantry, and special forces and constant pressure from the air quickly penetrated and isolated major portions of the country. Ground forces operated along thrust lines that quickly pierced the brain and heart of the Iraqi regime: Baghdad and oil. From the war's first minute, Iraq was left staggering like a heart-attack victim struggling in vain to regain balance. Iraq's organs of war had been cut off by a more nimble brain—a Coalition force capable of a quicker decision cycle and able to sustain multiple penetrations.
Coalition forces used the same penetration and isolation strategies that had worked so well on the national battle space on the cities of Baghdad and Basra. Instead of forming a noose around the cities in an attempt to strangle everyone, they effectively subverted the Iraqi regime by cutting the bonds of authority and fear that shackled the people to it.
Operation Desert Storm provided a template for a plodding and sequential approach to war: weeks of an "air war" were followed by days of a "ground war" that was mechanically linked to phase lines that repeatedly halted the tempo of potentially fast-moving ground units. In contrast, Operation Iraqi Freedom hit the Iraqi regime from the outset with a combined-arms force focused on cutting the moral-mental-physical links of the Iraqi regime to the rest of the world, starting with senior command elements in Baghdad as well as among command and military/paramilitary units dispersed across Iraq.
In his "Patterns of Conflict" briefing dated December 1986, Boyd wrote about the "essence of Blitzkrieg," which reads like a screenplay for what the world witnessed on 9 April 2003 with the fall of Baghdad and the collapse of Saddam's regime:
Create grand tactical success then exploit and expand it into strategic success for a decisive victory. . . . Blitzers, by being able to infiltrate or penetrate or get inside adversary's system, generate moral-mental-physical non-cooperative (or isolated) centers of gravity, as well as undermine or seize those centers of gravity adversary depends upon, in order to magnify friction, produce paralysis, and bring about adversary collapse. (p. 87, emphasis in original)
Having penetrated, isolated, and subverted the Iraqi regime, the United States and Britain must consolidate the war's fleeting gains by borrowing a page from the Boyd PISRR playbook—reorient and reharmonize. This would be wise, as the historic military victory has conveyed brief advantage to the Coalition partners. Yet the United States and Britain must now also use their power to help the Shia, Sunni, and Kurd build an Iraq without Saddam.
It is easy to picture Saddam scuttling from bunker to bunker, increasingly disoriented with each passing hour of penetration, isolation, and subversion at a national, city, and personal level, while power relentlessly slips through his fingers until he is left as a dead man walking. Now that's a real PISRR.
Captain Moore was designated a naval aviator in 1979. He serves in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as the military assistant for the Operational Test and Evaluation of Naval Aviation Systems: the future aircraft carrier (CVN-21); the FA-18E/F Super Hornet; and the Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle-Navy. He commanded Strike Fighter Squadron 81.
If he had been in charge of the Army of Northern Virginia, the south might have won the war.
He knew it all, and did it all.
When asked after the war whom he thought was the greatest soldier on either side, Lee replied without hesitation, ``A fellow I've never met -- Nathan Bedford Forrest.'' Forrest indeed was a phenomenon -- a man with no formal education or military experience who turned out to be a natural military genius on the level of such men as Frederick the Great. Forrest, a fearless and fierce man, could summon demonic fury. Though a Confederate general, he killed 31 people personally and had 29 horses shot out from under him. Forrest was admired by his men -- but Lee was loved.
As good as it gets....Forrest was wounded I think 18 times. He was also early 40s...old for a horseman/dragoon back then. He also killed a subordinate over a dispute with a knife...he apologized to the man as he died...the man considered it an honour to die at Forrest's hand. Bragg is damn lucky Forrest never killed him.
... and always will be, as well they should.
"You commenced your cowardly and contemptable persecution of me soon after the battle of Shiloh, and you have kept it up ever since. You did it because I reported to Richmond facts, while you reported damned lies. You robbed me of my command in Kentucky, and gave it to one of your personal favorites -- men that I armed and equipped from the enemies of our country. In a spirit of revenge and spite, because I would not fawn upon you as others did, you drove me into West Tennessee in the winter of 1862, with a second brigade I had organized, with improper arms and without sufficient ammunition, although I had made repeated applications for the same. You did it to ruin me and my career. "When in spite of all this I returned with my command, well equipped by captures, you began your work of spite and persecution, and have kept it up. And now this second brigade, organized and equipped without thanks to you or the government, a brigade which has won a reputation for successful fighting second to none in the army, taking advantage of your position as the commanding general in order to further humiliate me, you have taken these brave men from me. "I have stood your meanness as long as I intend to. You have played the part of a damned scoundrel, and are a coward, and if you were any part of a man I would slap your jaws and force you to resent it. "You may as well not issue any more orders to me, for I will not obey them. And I will hold you personally responsible for any further indignities you try to inflict upon me. "You have threatened to arrest me for not obeying you orders promptly. I dare you to do it, and I say that if you ever again try to interfere with me or cross my path, it will be at the peril of your life." Reportedly, Bragg's face was totally white when Forrest left. After exiting Bragg's tent. Dr. Cowan told him, "Well, you are in for it now.". Forrest turned and replied, "He'll never open his mouth. Unless you or I mention it, this will never be known." This incident was reported later in detail by Forrest's doctor, Dr. Cowan.
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