Building Snowmobiles: For Total War And Netwar, You Need Both A ‘Defense Industry’ And An ‘Offense Industry’ | Feral Jundi.
I tried commenting and got
Sorry
Your comment is a little too long. Try splitting it into multiple comments.
So I’ll comment on my own blog and feraljundi can read what I have to say over here.
What about the police, both federal and state? With transnational terrorists, criminal organizations etc., are there enough law enforcement to keep up with the deluge? In both the military and police examples, I do not think that they can match the size, spread and scope of today’s miscreants. An example is the drug war against the cartels. It is overwhelming the Mexican government, and the US is not doing that great of a job either, despite all the efforts of law enforcement.
The “drug war” down in Mexico is really just a turf battle between the cartel calling itself los Estados Unidos Mexicanos and the other cartels. The “drug war” in America is just Prohibition, rebranded from anti-booze to anti-“drug.” Think about when in American history opium, cocaine, & all the other “drugs” were demonized, outlawed, and “made war” upon. The “war on drugs” serves a purpose for those profiting from fighting it, & for that reason is unlikely to be won until all the junkies & recreational users are too broke to buy.
In the war against these folks like Al Qaeda, pirates or the cartels, I have doubts that there are enough military, police or intelligence assets to keep up with the formation of all of these networks.
I am absolutely certain there are not “enough” military, police or intelligence assets to keep up with the formation of all of these networks. Who would decide how many are “enough?” Enough to prevent another 9/11? Enough to prevent a cyber Pearl Harbor? There will never be “enough.” Not having “enough” is the default CYA excuse for not getting the job done with what they already have & the rationale for expanding their empire.
What I think is missing in this war, is a licensed and regulated market that profits from our enemy’s destruction. One created to promote netwar (or whatever works). That last part is crucial.
What I think is missing in this war is leadership that sincerely wants to destroy our enemies & can coherently communicate to the American taxpayer who those enemies are, what we’re doing to destroy them, when we can reasonably expect their destruction to be completed, where we intend to destroy them and why they need to be destroyed.
Also, it should be the goal of politicians and war planners to win the war as quickly as possible, once a war has been deemed necessary to fight.
Should be, but the real goal of politicians in power is to take credit for a successful and cheap war, while the real goal of politicians out of power is to make the politicians in power look like such douche bags that the voters turn them out next election, and the real goal of war planners is to protect their rice bowl and make their service/branch more respected and better funded.
Total war means no holds barred, no quarter given, no sacrifice too great, employment of Weapons of Mass Destruction, conscription, internment of enemy nationals, assumption of dictatorial powers by the Commander-in-Chief, government control of just about everything. You only want to go that far when the survival of your Westphalian nation-state is in doubt. Al Qaeda isn’t worth all that.
Civilian Irregular Information Defense Group 
You must be logged in to post a comment.