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WE BELIEVE WAR IS POLITICS BY OTHER MEANS AND THEY BELIEVE POLITICS IS WAR BY OTHER MEANS.
by Greg Hamilton
I became acutely aware of the issue about twenty years ago when I read The Western Way of War by VDH
We westerners have been trained and probably genetically selected to favor one type of war, the decisive battle with terms of surrender. Basically nearly a sporting event.
This led me on a big study of maneuver and asymmetry.
Here my super short takeaway. Asymmetry of beliefs, values, definitions, etc is a harder asymmetry to deal with than weapons, skills, etc.
We can kill the islamic terrorists 100:1 and they consider themselves the victor. And our national will is broken by the 1.
Somalia pirates are savages with rifles and we cant bring ourselves to just overwhelm them and be done with it, so they actually threaten giant steel ships. Asymmetry of beliefs. Our new morals are paralyzing and suicidal.
China conducts non-stop war upon us, its just doesn’t include shooting, and we roll over and take it. Because we believe war is politics by other means and they believe politics is war by other means.