Grant-----maybe Ben Z might agree with the following ---I would venture that currently in the Force the use of MDMP in it's standard form does in fact kill critical thinking as one simply goes through the rote of doing the steps not the thinking behind the why one is doing each of the steps. Instead of ignoring them like a Leave It To Beaver kind of approach to one's higher's OPORD, those things have to be critically investigated. [x] Of course, that does not leave too much left. SOF and those involved in the human domain are a force seeking to sense-make the world largely in an explicit way, but the world we want to operate in is instead socially constructed and filled with tacit knowledge. This next comment sums it up; These tasks are interactive and often occur simultaneously. Command & Control 2. The Sublime: The Paradox of the 7th Warfighting Function, (Or why SOF cannot eat our function and have it too). If one took the time to "understand the Sunni, Shia and AQI in Iraq one "saw" them at work---their surveillance, their targeting process, their swarm tactics and especially their thinking on the use of IEDs---and if one "understood" that then one could move onto their strategy which drove their battlefield tactics. The seven warfighting functions are command and control, fires, force protection, information, intelligence, logistics, and maneuver. What is the Movement and Maneuver warfighting function? The offense cannot sustain itself indefinitely. The Bronx accent and studied gangsta saunter, desperation for a Big Mac and the bewilderment that ..everywhere is dirt bro.. didnt fit the Shalwar Kameez, parroted Arabic dogma, clapped out PKM and a Rambo belt of filthy decades old 7.62x54 in the middle of some godforsaken desert. The endurance of Army forces is primarily a function of their sustainment. Reading your comments combined with RantCorp and Carl I believe in many ways you all are saying the same thing but maybe at a different level. SF majors would offer SOF much more and gain greater experience if their main job was as a Theater Special Operations Command (TSOC) planner in my opinion, or perhaps a more broadening experience like working in an embassy or at the State Department. [xxvii] What should concern the American people and those within SOF, however, is how much capability we have lost to act within complex environments (i.e., the human domain) as Special Operations becomes more and more consumed by the exact same bureaucratic pressures that the conventional forces have long suffered from. (See below). As in Michoacn, the human, urban and rural communities are realizing that existing institutions, overwhelmed by all kinds of problems, are non-functional and that organized citizens must take in their hand the management of resources, key decisions, justice, food production, education, prevention and so on. Secondly critical thinking ie asking all those points you mentioned above used to be the core of a SF that was based in the world of UW or what you refer to as SW. Pizarro was eventually killed by his own people, but the Inca Empire was forever lost. Our group believing that we might have made some progess in this, our generational project. Thus, we faced a problem: design pointed to our philosophy as being the problem, but we were wedded to our philosophy. For the . Ah, now I see where we are talking past one another. Similarly, the personnel and acquisition systems of SW forces would be more flexible and geared towards SWs mission as opposed to being largely beholden to red-tape and bureaucracy (SOCOMs acquisition system for SW forces is arguably just as cumbersome and ineffective as the Conventional Forces). This will ensure freedom of action, extend operational reach, and prolong endurance in support of . I suggest that the central reason we are not be able to "win friends and influence people" is because of our extremely well-known national objective, which is, outlier state and societal transformation. This was true for the SF of the 60/70s---the ability to "understand the mission, understand your enemy and understand yourself" before one is dropped in with no support from the outside world. The when and why comes from the officer charged with employing the infantryman's skills in conjunction with other skill sets to a purpose that he is charged with by the delegation of executive authority to his level by Article 2 of our Constitution). One organizations human domain is not how the ACoS uses it. They have become too skillful at techniques of selective inattention, junk categories, and situational control techniques, which they use to preserve constancy of their knowledge-in-practice. [x] Of course, that does not leave too much left. [iii] Although I understand the argument that the domains are not separate and indeed overlap greatly as well, in addition to other arguments for or against the concept, in order to make a point I will use them in their doctrinal form. In your case in Iraq any place where there were loads of screens. HERE is the issue that was recently discussed with a Robert Bunker over on the SWJ El Centro site. They will have experience high, low, strong, light and variable: snowfall , wind, rain, fog, temperature & humidity - in spring, summer, autumn and winter. And. The protection warfighting function is the related tasks and systems that preserve the force so the commander can apply maximum combat power to accomplish the mission (ADP 3-0). The purpose of the Protection WFF is to preserve combat power, the ability of the force to operate in the threat environment. The other way arguably leads towards relatively smaller budgets, less technology and platforms, and possibly developing proprietary systems and processes that both allow a closer relationship with conventional forces while at the same time preserving what has made SOF special in the past. I assume.". The goal of our young folks today -- via for example: diplomacy, development and defense -- is to undermine and eliminate the alternative ways of life and alternative ways of governance of the lesser and remaining states and societies and to, as in the case of the great powers above, replace these with ways of life and ways of governance which are more similar to our own. Youve pointed out that in the recent past, US Forces chose to ignore many open source TTPs that the terrorists have put in front of our very noses in such highly visible places such as YouTube and the internet. In plain English, the 7th WfF is all of the tasks and systems that military units would need to do or have to influence people, taking into account the socio-economic, cognitive, and physical aspects of human activity". The self, the psyche, must be involved somewhere. Carefully read the passage and choose the best answer for the question that follows. IA also includes the sub-function Civil Military Cooperation (CIMIC). In the dynamic environment of LSCO, self-reliance and aggressive action are key. It accomplishes this through adopting measures and conducting actions to reduce the risk posed by adversary, environmental and other threats and hazards. Let me expand on this somewhat by providing a broader context: The goal is to transform the lesser and remaining outlier states and societies along modern western lines; this, so that they might better benefit from and better provide for the global economy. One example may assist in understanding the phenomenon. Aztec prophets had prognosticated that bearded men would arrive from the east, or the land of the sun god-the Aztec conception of heaven. The art of Special Warfare is a creative use of special groups of professionals who are educated and trained to see things from multiple perspectives, to critically think about ones institutions flawed view of the world, create something new that is highly context-dependent across the resource spectrum, and learns while doing. Since the "old" individual SF soldier as well founded in UW it was easy to shift between the various Projects, Mike Forces,and A Teams and one did not loss a single minute---AND one did not "feel" that one was being degraded if one shifted from say SR back to a CIDG team or to a Mike Force. Original content is published under aCreative Commons Licenseper ourTerms of Use. It must be something to do with the sort of personality attracted to these subjects, I imagine. During that time the Beards would have recognized the way the conflict ecosystem changes when a man stepped on a mine, an IED flipped a vehicle and a helicopter was shot down. The Combatant Commands place a premium on networks that can integrate the Joint warfighting functions. What I find interesting about this revelation is that looking back it becomes almost tragic that we have completely ignored the ability to do or allow our own warfighters to have free run of using open sourced reconnaissance while our enemies have not neglected this and in fact have used it to great success. All warfighting functions possess scalable capabilities to mass lethal and nonlethal effects. We must also firmly ground and continuously educate them in critical and creative thinking. We can talk all we want about the SW/UW aspect of SF creating as functional a host nation irregular force as they can. In the social realm critical realism still can be applied, but it is not predictive. I am so tired of the on going six year debate about the "surge" being successful or what used to be called "human terrain system" and now "human domain". Protection may also encompass the surrounding population and environment. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. We are convinced we can measure everything we do, to the extent that we talk about things like measures of effectiveness and measures of performance as if effectiveness is something one can always measure (the problem of sufficient causation and original causes). I am again going to shy away from your basic argument even though I agree with you. Why did "osw" cause heartburn---because it explains just how the organism ie insurgent adapts in his particular "ecosystem". Those who survived were forced to abandon their customs and live beneath Spanish rule for the next three centuries. That is, unconventional tactics (e.g. Since the Cold War and especially since 9/11, the Army has stayed very large and SOF has grown even more. This is good to know information for any commander or staff officer. Not always the case. -- as produced by the enemy -- seems to be a step ahead of our own? Herein, we must be prepared to deal with the vastly increased and very broad and very deep chaos (exs: rebellions, insurgencies, genocide, famine, increased crime, etc., etc., etc.) prior to embarking upon major military operations. Merton described many of the problems that are endemic to bureaucracies: "trained incapacity" resulting from "overconformity", defending of ones own entrenched interests rather than acting to benefit the organization, resisting change to established routines, emphasizing formality and process over relationships, and trained to ignore context and circumstance. Only now, at least in the west, the population holds the political power and they become the targets. And understand that the enemy (government or population, as the case may be), will not, as was thought, be waiting with roses. So where are the pilots? It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. What are the 7 warfighting functions? 2- that this influence undermined the very foundation of our DoD system of systems- which relies on nested purposes and logic from the most tactical all the way up to the President's national security strategy. [xxix] Then-Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) Commanding General, General Martin E. Dempsey, according to one anonymous School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) instructor, told the SAMS authors of the draft design publication that it was too long, had too many big words, and didnt have any of our current doctrinal concepts like Center of Gravity in it. Whether this is true or not, shortly thereafter Dr. Jack Kem wrote a short design booklet (Design: Tools of the Trade) that linked design to doctrine and as soon as LTG William B. Caldwell IV left Fort Leavenworth for Afghanistan and took Dr. Kem with him, the original draft authors quickly published The Art of Design, Student Text 2.0, which attempted to undo the changes that TRADOC reportedly had ordered. To add to those types of missions I would include any military operation in which either the objectives are very unclear and abstract or the operation is structured in such a way as to have a high likelihood of being unbounded in scope and time. Everything indicates that as the world becomes more complex, unpredictable, uncertain and fragile, many of the institutions, such as formal democracy, the market, centralized justice, the banks, will become obsolete. It is also the means of focusing So while our enemy understands us, I believe that we have a hard time understanding them insofar as we dont know how to defeat them. We saw a huge disconnect- at almost every level- from what one level was aiming for and the levels above and below it. What I find interesting is that Kilcullen was correct in using it---and then say John Robb fleshed it out with his standing orders and his use of the term "open source warfare" which really caused some heartburn in the various agencies. Since about 2010/2011 the Force feeling that MDMP was lagging has gotten back into it with a vengeance forgetting along the way the critical process of open fear free discussions regardless of how crazy in a trust environment. Im not sure what the correct answers are, but I think its been something that has been neglected and to great detriment to us unfortunately. As Behavioralism was influenced by Comteon Positivism- it is logical that we are Positivists- that is, we believe if we just gather enough data, the answers to all of life's complex problems will become obvious to us. Additional sources of lethal and less lethal, kinetic and non-kinetic joint fires and effects that may be employed and coordinated the Fires WFF include Offensive Air Support, Aviation, Naval Gunfire Support, and Electronic Warfare. E. Pre-Columbian cultures did not use plants for decoration. Compliant change is change that is forced onto others, they comply. Personally, I disagree. They could learn nothing at all about what the people in a platoon outpost are likely to do by looking at small town America. and ask: a. The seven warfighting functions are command and control, fires, force protection, information, intelligence, logistics, and maneuver. If I am to do artestry, then I must at least know what is the subject matter. But, if that statement mirrors the missions SOF receives, then there needs to be a deeper and more meaningful meaning-of-life-come-to-Jesus type conversation that needs to be had in Tampa about what UW/SW is as a tool and how policy shapes its implementation. the applies not only to AQ but to most of the worldwide Sunni insurgent groups. Yes, this is going to be hard and it is a very complex area, but I don't think it is totally unmanageable or even unmeasurable. As Grant opened up the question of SW/UW vs the Special Action side and would suggest that Mexico become the training scenario for SW/UW. Furthermore the village you are attempting to save has a culture that has been severely affected by decades of conflict and is somewhat different to how it once was or aspires to be. Now I wish I would have written something more helpful. This human domain/participatory observation concept looks like it is to be accomplished in times of peace (today and the immediate future?) The Inca Empire shared a fate similar to that of the Aztec, but at the hands of a conquistador more sinister than Cortez. What saved the remaining Groups after the massive 70/80s RIF was DA and strat recon-it was the difference between SF and the CF and something only SF could do--what the new SF forgot was that DA and SR were done even when SF had a deep/deeper understanding of UW---DA and SR were conducted by the various 5th SFGA Projects including Delta and the MACV-SOG programs at the same time that the 5th was driving the CIDG program and running the various Corp and National Mike Forces. The related tasks and systems that move and employ forces to achieve a position of relative advantage over the enemy and other threats. Ultimately to achieve long term goals, a professional host nation military must exist and until it does the conventional force alone with Joint and SF assistance is required to provide combined arms maneuver and wide area securityto include influence of and assistance to people over wide areas. 20 What are the 6 Warfighter functions? I'm not so sure the world is a safer or better place than it was 12 years ago. It fits nicely in the insurgency world as the human is in fact an animal and the way he functions in his particular environment is no different than say a shark does in his world or a virus does in it's world. It borders on a religion and has been rejected by most disciplines (http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/positvsm.php). 2013. ~ Army Pubs. Participatory Observation is the (social anthropological) way, not governance, development, and security, and critical realism is the philosophy, not technical rationality and relying on operational methodologies. That is, we in the Army believe, like the Political Scientist David Easton, "that in order for [military] science to become scientifically mature, it need[s] to internalize scientific principles and methods and focus on the empirically observable behavior of political actors.". Commanders integrate and synchronize these capabilities with other WFF to accomplish objectives and missions. Otherwise it is hard to pinpoint the focus of 70+ air sorties in "Lions of Kandahar," or protect an infantry platoon being approached by a much larger force in "Outlaw Platoon." We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. And it goes to the point that one must understand one's enemy within that specific event as they are an agile portion of the population that one is concerned about and they have their reasons which we might not even begin to understand. Despite vicious religious practices, the Aztec demonstrated ingenuity by inventing an innovative farming technique to grow crops among the 30 canals of Tenochtitlan. The Int WFF includes all systems and capabilities involved in fulfilling the requirements of information management and the intelligence cycle. I have read and heard many who claim that the Army Warfighting Functions just create more red-tape and are not needed. Intelligence 5. Thus if we, as you say, did not shy away from explaining exactly what this generations' mission was (summed up as offense rather than defense), then might we see the greater innovation, artestry, etc., that we are looking for? Until we can break away from our own institutionally-encouraged paradigms and consciously understand where our concepts come from and the weaknesses inherent within them, we should not expect to operate any better at attempting change in others than we have as of late. When COL Chamberlin ordered a bayonet charge from the defense he was banking on the fact that it would cause confusion in the enemy conducting the charge. Build and field indigenous forces which can be used to: 1. In spite of the achievements and predominance of the two civilizations intact after Columbus arrived in the New World, they found themselves at the mercy of the Spaniards during the sixteenth century. For all the efforts at "understanding the culture" of the environments we are working it failed and I mean totally failed because we did not "understand the culture of the enemy". Your email address will not be published. Therefore many in SOF will call a Special Forces (SF) Group a tactical level organization. [x] U.S. Army, TRADOC Pamphlet 525-3-0, The U.S. Army Capstone Concept, 19 DEC 2012, 15-16. Unless, of course, you mean to present an ahistorical role for SOF in future conflicts such as the lead in the military. That we have been unable to incorporate the so-called lessons of the early days of Iraq into our operations in Afghanistan should cause us to seriously question the validity and universality of those lessons. They all belong. I do think that we are currently measuring the wrong things largely becuase we have been depending on others to dictate what is important rather than doing serious reseach on our own. I agree with your assessment, the way we use technology largely replaced our use of the M1E to gain a true understanding of our operational environment, so while we have better battle field awareness on a T.V. For the purposes of simplification and clarity I will define the human domain, not in terms of its content (the other), but in terms of the missions or environment most closely related to the concept. Special Warfare (SW), on the other hand, encompasses those units that are capable of long-term duration operations in denied areas to train indigenous forces. SW demands from a SF team far more in what Germans call "spitzengefuelhlen" or the feelings in your fingertips or the Art that you refer to. It is noteworthy that within the ARSOF 2022 vision and related efforts, LTG Charles T. Cleveland, the commander of USASOC, calls for testing and experimentation of new and different operational planning constructs specifically with respect to Special Warfare. Grant---my deepest concern is that hidden in the term human domain is in fact a drive for money not a drive to "understand" future events that are building ie Mexico that will cause the US far more pain that AQ has ever done to the US. Since the purpose of military action is to affect the behavior of human groups in the operational environment toward a defined objective, the Army must improve the doctrinal representation of the operational environment and account for the socio-economic, cognitive, and physical aspects of human activity. For example, Joint Publication 3-12 characterizes cy-berattacks as a form of fires,29 similar in principle to artillery or machine-gun fire, that de- c. And know the kind of war that one is embarked upon. I think what throws everything off is that: a. [xxii] Doctrine applied to the world of tacit knowledge makes little sense and I would argue makes things more confusing. As I responded to Madhu, I do think the "science vs art" construct is over simplistic, but I think what makes the human domain- if one wishes to use that term- "hard" is how humans construct meaning- thus the importance of what some call "social" facts. I know on some level it is important to teach the current doctrine. These movements may be partial or complete. Example---for all our efforts in understanding the Iraq security forces and in training the same forces why are they then failing against a resurging ISIL and JRTN? Grant---I think part of the current issue inside SF is a distinct lack of UW experience passed on from the 60/70s to the Groups having to just survive in order to rebuild. Preferably we would rigorously experiment with different constructs and approaches as our norm. That the autodefensas exist and have the capacity to organize armed resistance to TCO's does not mean that they should be helped (timely