history

WAR AND DRUGS. A TOXIC RELATIONSHIP.

Riley.C.Murray — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 04:47:41 +0000

WAR AND DRUGS. A TOXIC RELATIONSHIP. Riley.C.Murray Fri, 10/22/2021 - 12:47am

Combatants have turned to all sorts of substances to enhance their performance or to alleviate their hardships, from the wine and opium used by Greek hoplites to the Dexedrine employed by fighter pilots to stay alert. Sometimes this has been the path to pharmacological innovations, sometimes to the spread of addictions. Although the abuse of these substances remains a problem in all armies, new drugs are emerging to reduce the need for sleep and even open the door to genetic modification.

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The Experience of War: The Commonalities of Shared Experiences in the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915

SWJED — Sun, 28 Apr 2019 05:56:47 +0000

The Experience of War: The Commonalities of Shared Experiences in the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915

To what extent can the examples of individual testimony offer a sense of collective experience? The experience of war can only be understood through the commonality that is shared amongst all the participants. Perception varies greatly from one individual to the next. What one may view as surrounded, may be seen as scarce to the next. Therefore, it is vital to compile individual testimonies and find the universal commonality amongst them in order to formulate a collective experience.

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Vietnam War History: Orthodox Versus Revisionist

SWJED — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 12:56:43 +0000

Vietnam War History: Orthodox Versus Revisionist

The dispute between orthodox and revisionist historians of the Second Indochina War is not about debating points, but about permanent differences of basic value systems and perceptions of historical reality. The epistemological dispute between their opposing concepts of historical truth -- objective truth versus subjective "truthiness" -- may be endlessly analyzed, but probably never fully resolved.

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Beware the Lesson of the Caudine Forks

SWJED — Mon, 25 Feb 2019 12:54:12 +0000

Beware the Lesson of the Caudine Forks

There are certain events in military history that rise above the rest. They are not merely battles, campaigns, or wars. They teach more than the specifics of military science. There are certain events that teach an art and address moral and philosophical topics of a timeless nature. It is very well to know how to turn the flank of an advancing army. It is something altogether different to understand and balance the competing interests of victory and mercy, efficiency and morality.

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Look Who Has Been Entrusted With Vietnam Military History

SWJED — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 05:22:30 +0000

Look Who Has Been Entrusted With Vietnam Military History

Franklin C. Annis’ recent article (SWJ, February 16, 2019) “Who is to be Trusted with Military History?” is a good start, but it fails to address a number of items and takes a slap (intended or not) at Vietnam veterans.

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Who is to be Trusted with Military History?

SWJED — Sat, 16 Feb 2019 07:26:05 +0000

Who is to be Trusted with Military History?

Georges Clemenceau once asserted that “War .. [is] much too serious a thing to be left to the military”. U.S. Service Members would recognize this assertion to be true as applied to modern warfare. Clemenceau’s assertion presents an interesting follow on question. If war exceeds the limits of the military, should the recording of military history also be perceived as a task exceeding the abilities of Department of Defense historians? In this paper, we will examine Clemenceau’s original assertion and if demonstrated to be true will examine the question of who should be responsible for the recording and the examination of military history.

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History & The Military Professional

SWJED — Mon, 23 Oct 2017 04:09:16 +0000

History & The Military Professional

Studying military history affords military professionals the opportunity to identify lessons that apply to operational environments and develop a deeper understanding of their profession.

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A Review: Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present

Peter J. Munson — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 07:30:00 +0000

A Review: Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present Peter J. Munson Tue, 04/16/2013 - 3:30am

Guerilla warfare is not an “Eastern Way of War,” it is the universal war of the weak.

“In the Service of Humanity and Civilization”? The Austro-Hungarian Occupation of Bosnia and Hercegovina (1878)

Peter J. Munson — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 08:30:00 +0000

“In the Service of Humanity and Civilization”? The Austro-Hungarian Occupation of Bosnia and Hercegovina (1878) Peter J. Munson Fri, 02/08/2013 - 3:30am

During the second half of the 19th century, stability in southeastern Europe was challenged by newly emerging nation-states as well as the decay of the Ottoman Empire.

Casebooks on Insurgency and Revolutionary Warfare

Peter J. Munson — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 22:49:36 +0000

Casebooks on Insurgency and Revolutionary Warfare

US Army Special Operations Command and Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory National Security Analysis Department have put together a useful reference for small wars students and practitioners entitled "Casebook on Insurgency and Revolutionary Warfare Volume II: 1962-2009." The resource is available for download in PDF format here. If you are wondering where Volume I is, that government document covers post-World War I insurgencies and revolutions up to 1962 and can be downloaded in PDF here. The original was published by the Special Operations Research Office at The American University in 1962.

Volume II is broken down by conceptual categories as can be seen by the table of contents:

I. REVOLUTION TO MODIFY THE TYPE OF GOVERNMENT........... 1

1. New People’s Army (NPA).............................................................5

2. Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC)..........39

3. Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path)............................................71

4. 1979 Iranian Revolution............................................................113

5. Frente Farabundo Martí Para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN)...151

6. Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA)................................195

II. REVOLUTION BASED ON IDENTITY OR ETHNIC ISSUES........ 229

7. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)...............................233

8. Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): 1964–2009............277

9. Hutu–Tutsi Genocides...............................................................307

10. Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA): 1996–1999............................343

11. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA): 1969–2001...379

III. REVOLUTION TO DRIVE OUT A FOREIGN POWER.................. 423

12. Afghan Mujahidin: 1979–1989..................................................427

13. Viet Cong: 1954–1976................................................................459

14. Chechen Revolution: 1991–2002..............................................489

15. Hizbollah: 1982–2009................................................................525

16. Hizbul Mujahideen....................................................................569

IV. REVOLUTION BASED ON RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM.... 605

17. Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ)......................................................609

18. Taliban: 1994–2009....................................................................651

19. Al Qaeda: 1988–2001.................................................................685

V. REVOLUTION FOR MODERNIZATION OR REFORM................. 725

20. Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND)....729

21. Revolutionary United Front (RUF)—Sierra Leone.................763

22. Orange Revolution of Ukraine: 2004–2005..............................801

23. Solidarity.....................................................................................825

The original was broken down regionally and included chapters on Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaya, Guatemala, Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Tunisia, Algeria, French Cameroon, Congo, Iraq x 2, Egypt, Iran, Sudan, Korea, China, Germany, Spain, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia.

This project has been the vision of Paul Tompkins, a retired Special Forces Warrant Officer who works in the USASOC G3 and has had the support of the senior Army SOF leadership (see forwards from LTG Mulholland and MG Sacolick). This is the first of several products that will be published on human factors In revolutions and insurgencies as well as undergrounds and auxiliaries.

"In a rare spare moment during a training exercise, the Operational Detachment-Alpha (ODA) Team Sergeant took an old book down from the shelf and tossed it into the young Green Beret’s lap. “Read and learn.” The book on human factors considerations in insurgencies was already more than twenty years old and very out of vogue. But the younger sergeant soon became engrossed and took other forgotten revolution-related texts off the shelf, including the 1962 Casebook on Insurgency and Revolutionary Warfare, which described the organization of undergrounds and the motivations and behaviors of revolutionaries. He became a student of the history of unconventional warfare and soon championed its revival as a teaching subject for the US Army Special Forces. When his country faced pop-up resistance in Iraq and tenacious guerrilla bands in Afghanistan during the mid-2000s, his vision of modernizing the research and reintroducing it into standard education and training took hold.

This second volume owes its creation to the vision of that young Green Beret, Paul Tompkins, and to the challenge that his sergeant, Ed Brody, threw into his lap."

H/T to Dave Maxwell

Peter J. Munson Mon, 07/09/2012 - 6:49pm