Re:Thunder Run to Seoul: Assessing North Korea’s War Plan
by Animats on Tuesday April 25, 2017 @03:08PM
(#14196982)
USMC MCDP 1, Warfighting, is a good read.[1] It's a bit philosophical, but far less so than Sun Tzu or Clausewitz.
For small-unit tactics, read the classic The Defense of Duffer's Drift to get a sense of the problem.[2] Then read some of the military how-to manuals.
Armchair generals talk strategy. Real generals talk logistics. Logistics cannot win wars, but it can easily lose them. If the troops at the sharp end run out of fuel, food, or ammo, they're dead. Eisenhower was a logistics guy. Gen. Gus Patronis's "Moving Mountains" describes the logistics for the Gulf War.
Overall American strategy from WWII has been 1) accumulate huge resources 2) hammer. This worked in WWII, failed in Vietnam, worked in the Gulf War, worked in the Iraq invasion, and failed in the aftermath of Iraq and Afghanistan. How to win today's diffused wars is much discussed in the military; there are endless papers in Parameters, the Army War College journal. There's no center to obliterate for victory. No way to force a decision.
Korea is a classic heavy force-on-force situation. If that happens, it will look like WWII, not Afghanistan. Massive casualties and flattened cities.
For small-unit tactics, read the classic The Defense of Duffer's Drift to get a sense of the problem.[2] Then read some of the military how-to manuals.
Armchair generals talk strategy. Real generals talk logistics. Logistics cannot win wars, but it can easily lose them. If the troops at the sharp end run out of fuel, food, or ammo, they're dead. Eisenhower was a logistics guy. Gen. Gus Patronis's "Moving Mountains" describes the logistics for the Gulf War.
Overall American strategy from WWII has been 1) accumulate huge resources 2) hammer. This worked in WWII, failed in Vietnam, worked in the Gulf War, worked in the Iraq invasion, and failed in the aftermath of Iraq and Afghanistan. How to win today's diffused wars is much discussed in the military; there are endless papers in Parameters, the Army War College journal. There's no center to obliterate for victory. No way to force a decision.
Korea is a classic heavy force-on-force situation. If that happens, it will look like WWII, not Afghanistan. Massive casualties and flattened cities.
[1] http://www.marines.mil/Portals/59/Publications/MCDP%201%20Wa... [2] https://ia801000.us.archive.org/29/items/FMFRP1233TheDefense...