This article was written by Brandon Smith and originally published at Alt-Market.com I have heard it often said that there is no one right way to accomplish a goal. I agree. However, I would add that while there is no such thing as “one right way” to achieve an objective, this does not mean there…
Category: Guerilla Warfare
Quick Facts: Iran is Waging Textbook 4th Generation Warfare Against Israel
At this moment Iran is waging a clinic on 21st Century 4th Generation Warfare against Israel. Consider the facts: Israeli Infrastructure such as Electrical Power Grid and Water Supply has had repeated hacker attacks Hezbollah has launched a HUGE Cyber-Attack on Israel to include hacking a Former IDF Army Chief of Staff Computer Social and Political Unrest…
Paradoxes of the “Gray Zone”
Gray, it seems, is the new black. The concept of “gray zone” conflict has generated significant attention and controversy recently, within both the U.S. government and the broader strategic studies community. Some analysts have identified gray zone conflict as a new phenomenon that will increasingly characterize, and challenge, the international system in the years…
Espionage Files: The CIA’s Phoenix Program in Vietnam and the “War on Terror”
The Phoenix Program in Vietnam in many ways provides a blue print for our own times. Assassinations and torture are the essence of the war on terror. As are death squads and false flag terror attacks. As are mass surveillance of the populace. Thanks to the work of Douglas Valentine in his classic book “The Phoenix…
Defeating Al-Qaeda’s Nodes
Al Qaeda and the Islamic State thrive in lawless and ungoverned spaces where there is no rule of law to keep them in check. Al Qaeda’s home base in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) is the epitome of such a place, but the tide there has been turning against them over the last decade,…
Studies in Terrorism: Hamas The “Merchants of War” Who Seek to Destroy Israel
In the words of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, the tunnels are being dug not only to “defend the Gaza Strip, but to serve as a launching pad to reach all of Palestine.” As one can see from any map of Palestine, “all of Palestine” does not mean living in peace alongside Israel; it means supplanting…
Crusader Corner: The Western Volunteers Fighting ISIS
“A lot of people come over here thinking they’re going to be Rambo. It’s not like that.” The village had no name. Everyone who had known the name of the village was now dead or had fled. When the Kurdish peshmerga fighters had recaptured the settlement from ISIS that spring, it was so full of…
Cold War Files: The Cuban Army Abroad; Castro’s Foreign Cold Warriors
“Throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s, Castro was only too eager to export revolution to the Third World. Often this support even came in the form of combat troops to lend a hand to various Marxist uprisings.” AMERICA WAS STILL REELING from its humiliation in Vietnam in 1976 when hawks within the administration of President Gerald Ford were pushing for the United…
Military History: Marine Corp General James Mattis, “Nothing New Under the Sun…”
In 2013 General James N. Mattis retired after a 41-year Marine Corps career that included field commands in the Persian Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan. In the theater of combat the hard-charging general was known by the call sign “Chaos.” But it was his respect for history and studious commitment to training in strategy and…
Mean Streets: The Clash of Technology and Terrain and Urban Warfare
In urban environments, the playing field is levelled between the conventional armies and insurgents BE IT ALEPPO or Damascus, Mosul or Ramadi, or even Eastern Ukraine, combatants in today’s conflicts are frequently fighting in and over urban areas. The decision to wage war in cities is driven in part by modern military technology. Frequently,…