Michael Yon is a former Green Beret, native of Winter Haven, Florida, who has been reporting from Iraq and Afghanistan since December 2004. No other reporter has spent as much time with combat troops in these two wars.
Michael’s dispatches from the frontlines have earned him the reputation as the premier independent combat journalist of his generation. His work has been featured on “Good Morning America,” The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CNN, ABC, FOX, as well as hundreds of other major media outlets all around the world.
It is 9:25 PM in San Francisco. A few minutes ago Michael finished a series of tweets through his Twitter account. It's morning now in Afghanistan.
This is an exceptional series and I have reproduced the tweet log here.
After you read the tweets, go to http://www.michaelyon-online.com/ and check out some of the awesome photos direct from Afghanistan.
Here are the tweets as Michael sent them out from Afghanistan minutes ago:
If the enemies are smart – and they are – they will attack on every front: media, political, battlefield. They are inside our OODA loop.
The White House OODA loop is laughable. Decisive enemies are in prime position.
OODA Loop is something you'll hear often with special operations folks, fighter pilots, & true combat leaders. (US,Brit & Aussie, at least.)
OODA Loop is an old idea but formalized and "acronym-ized" by John Boyd.
OODA: Observe Orient Decide Act
When fighting -- especially if you are militarily inferior -- it is crucial to stay within your enemy's OODA Loop.
Works with legal fights, too...such as my major copyright fights. If you fight hard, fast, with surprise, you can beat "superior" enemies.
You can outsmart groups of people wherein every individual is smarter than you are.
If you stay inside their OODA Loop, and you are smart and decisive, you can defeat enemies who are incredibly superior in nearly every way.
Our current administration has an OODA loop that enemies dream about.
I first learned OODA loop back in Special Forces. We didn't call it OODA. It is a way of thinking that comes naturally to some people.
Great guerrilla commanders might not know the term OODA, but they are very good at it.
When I was younger, I read many books written by attorneys. The little attorneys who can defeat gigantic organizations understand OODA.
I liked to hear what Sam Walton had to say. Mr. Walton understood OODA thinking and applied it to business. (Just one arrow in his quiver.)
Sam Walton started as the guerrilla.
The great attorney Gerry Spence was a great guerrilla. Whether people liked him or not was irrelevant. He crushed far superior opponents.
The enemy has an OODA loop just as we do. (There are various enemies in AfPak, for instance, so their loops will differ.)
Taliban in South Afghanistan (known as the QST or Quetta Shura Taliban) also have an OODA loop. No enemy is without inertia.
Our military can deploy faster than FedEx, but our forces are not without inertia. Especially as pertains to Afghanistan.
It takes much time to implement new strategies or just a new battle plan for 2010. The QST must also make plans and deploy assets.
While QST and others are preparing for 2010, our 6-Star General in the White House is indecisive & weak. He is no match for the QST leaders.
Obama is in an elected military leader. General Obama is no match for the Taliban who are decisive, bold and experienced.
Obama lacks experience, is tentative and timid. These are not political estimations of Obama, but a military appraisal of a military leader.
QST and others cannot defeat our military the way they defeated the Soviets. The Soviets took off the gloves and still got crushed.
If I were an enemy high commander, I would focus very little on U.S. troops.
The U.S. would see casualties drop.I would focus very hard on Canadians who are going to quit and would humiliate them as much as possible.
I would focus on British, knowing British would punish my forces but that I could cause the British public to cry. Gordon Brown is weak.
Sarkozy is decisive and bold so I would save the French for later and focus on the Germans.
The Germans are unprepared for this level of extreme, unpredictable violence, so I would focus suicide attacks on them to bait overreaction.
I would focus very hard on Germans, terrorize their forces and cause them to overreact and attack the population.
I would attack the Japanese and cause them to leave and then make a big publicity event out of the departure.
I would avoid attacking U.S. forces, thus allowing Obama's natural weakness to look like his strength; I don't want him to send more forces.
If Obama sends more forces, NATO will send more. So don't attack Americans and let Americans think they are winning.
Let American officers report that they are making big successes, and so the President can easily decide to stop reinforcing.
Concentrate all efforts on the key partners who are showing weakness, indecisiveness or lack of commitment.
Identify and specifically concentrate on Coalition units who are bad to the people, or who overreact after an attack.
Provoke them at every chance. Cause them to question General McChrystal and his rules of engagement. Cause them to fight ROE.
Cause them to break ROE.
At all cost, avoid provoking the U.S. to send more troops -- continue to concentrate on the Coalition and breaking it apart.
Plan massive attacks around election cycles of Coalition members, and around important days or times of year, such as Christmas
Remember...do NOT provoke the United States... we will get to them later.
Treat prisoners fairly. Never, ever, for any reason, mistreat a prisoner. Especially not an American prisoner. This is counterproductive.
Remember, and this is very important: ALL troops in Afghanistan are AMERICAN. Most Afghans do not know U.S. from French from Germans.
Any soldier you can provoke to overuse force will benefit us in 2012 when we shift focus to the U.S. before their Presidential election.
Any German, French, Italian soldier who overreacts, will reflect upon the Americans.
Attacking the Italians is attacking the Americans, but attacking the Americans is not attacking the Italians.
Thinking as the enemy commander, I would attack Obama in about 2012, shifting all discretionary forces at U.S. forces and civilians.
By 2012, key Coalition partners will be shaking in their boots and civilians will have turned against them.
By 2012, the Brits will be defeated, or effectively defeated, and pour all discretionary forces at Americans.
By 2012, the American people will not even consider reinforcing, and the end game can begin.
By 2016, victory will be ours. NATO will be weakened. The Americans will be depressed and second-guessing themselves.
Our brothers in the Philippines, Indonesia, Africa and elsewhere will see the weakness of the United States.
Without the strength of the United States, Europe is weak. And then we can begin.
That's enough Tweets for this morning (I am in Asia). That is how I see, as an enemy commander, the Obama OODA loop in Afghanistan.
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1 comments:
Excellent article. I wish the mainstream media would cover these events...
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