Scimus autem quoniam diligentibus Deum omnia cooperantur in bonum, iis qui secundum propositum vocati sunt sancti. And we know that to them that love God, all things work together unto good, to such as, according to his purpose, are called to be saints.
This was recorded on the 17SEP21 and and went to YouTube on 20SEP21. It runs an hour and a quarter. Worth the full view, IMO.
Twice VDH and McMaster go fireworks against each other, once started by VDH, once by McMaster. The points of explosion are important. This is no tit for tat, this is serious stuff. IMO, VDH inflicts the most abrasion in both fights because McMaster wants to defend military and blame “politicians” whereas VDH wants to look at all-around facts.
However, McMaster is the one who mentions, just in passing, and far into the conversation, what IMO is the key all-around fact, the real fly in the ointment, as we used to say: RMA, Revolution in Military Affairs. RMA has hobbled senior military leaders and bled out Soldiers the way Liberation Theology (LT) has hobbled senior churchmen and bled out Laity. The moral / conceptual victim in both cases has been common sense (CS).
The host’s questions quickly engage the important matters and VDH and McMaster assemble their faculties to illuminating effect. My construction of the moral / conceptual situation, following rumination thereon, follows.
RMA: manage competition
CS: terminate aggression
RMA: minimize casualties by maximizing technology
CS: liberate ingenuity
RMA: preclude winning on grounds that to win requires unacceptable casualties and destruction
CS: minimize casualties and destruction by preparing hard to fight, fighting easy, and winning early
RMA: accepts endless war but calls it competition, or at most, conflict (manage mayhem)
CS: demands earliest possible signing by the target of an unconditional surrender (terminate the will to make mayhem)
RMA: begets endless sloganeering to cover the hobbling and bleeding effects of RMA itself
CS: fosters plain speaking as to who, what, when, where, why, and how to blow down an aggressor so he does not rise again
RMA is a nominalist approach to struggle. Common sense is a realist approach to struggle. Struggle itself is a constant (a fact nominalists avoid). Struggle cannot be postponed, avoided, or made to end. Struggle is universally involuntary, like breathing. However, struggle to exist is evil and must be ended whereas struggle to live is good and must be encouraged.
Another’s aggression against one sets one in the condition of struggling to exist. We call that war. War must be made to cease, and that forcefully, at the earliest possible time using the least destructive means. This we call just war.
Another’s struggle to live, however — a condition shared by all at all times — is not war and does not justify war against that other. That other struggles to live but does not aggress against one. The difference is vast and impassible.
Only another’s aggression against one
justifies one’s going to war with that other.
The answer to RMA is: structure the joint force to accomplish the mission of the land force. The land force component’s needs govern every war and any battle formation. Land force mission conditions joint force orders. Spending and procurement should proceed as consistent with that fact. The decisive land force formation now and futurely is the Battalion Task Force. Strategic, tactical, and logistical thought should focus on delivering capacity to that formation.
Thomas Bruscino, Mitchell G. Klingenberg: Putting the “War” Back in War Colleges
Frank Fang: US Coast Guard Pacific Chief Says China’s New Maritime Rule ‘Very Concerning’
Fortis Analysis: Protein and Transpacific Power: China’s Emergent Struggle for Food Security
Travis Pike: The Future Marine Rifle Squad As Explained By A Machine Gunner
Wiki: Mongol military tactics and organization
PLA COLs: Unrestricted Warfare
Principle I
Principle II
Principle III
An order to deploy which lacks or frustrates intent to compel a target to sign a declaration of unconditional surrender is an unlawful order by the Rules of Just War, the Conventions of War, Common Sense, and the Spirit of America.
Some people, who have no experience and don’t put their words into practice, go about declaring that the way to peace is to keep the world at a distance. That’s no peace; it’s just the opposite. If the seed is taken far away from the tree, won’t it grow into a tree again? If you don’t want that, you must boil the seed or fry it over fire! So too, impulses and desires that germinate must be fried over the fire of discrimination (vichara); then, real peace will emerge. Instead, if one escapes from the responsibilities of life in society, peace cannot be enjoyed; it will never come! But, if desires (vasanas) are controlled and eliminated, there’s no need to run away. Being content with what one has, refusing to be worried by absence of things that one hasn’t, trying as far as possible to reduce and eliminate desires, passion and hatreds, strive to cultivate and systematically practice truth, dharma, love, and patience (sahana).