Those always struck me as SF-light. The The purpose of CIMIC is to coordinate with and support the various non-military elements of the operating environment. It is also a mistake to apply it equally in all situations. This function provides Army leadership the means to use a targeting process in relation to indirect fires, missile defense, and joint fires in a way that keeps United States troops safe while delivering fires in support of offensive or defensive operations. What are the movement and maneuver warfighting function tasks? The danger lies with ARSOF copying the U.S. Armys use of physical domain approaches when it comes to the human domain. Art, admittedly, forces one to take risk. I first noticed this in Afghanistan where a few of us sat down and attempted to make sense of the disconnect between our official pronouncements and doctrine and the reality of what commanders were doing and saying privately. The conduct of What matters is what organized military forces do in their country, not what the people who comprise those forces do in their spare time or what they do at home. The role of information in future conflicts is becoming exceedingly important given the explosive rise of information technology. Any armed group of men funded by anyone can do the ally part. 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. A warfighting function (WFF) is a group of tasks and systems united by a common purpose that commanders use to accomplish missions and training objectives. 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. 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. The goal is not more money, more missions, or more personnel. We shouldn't in my opinion be okay with the first time team guys do critical and creative thinking is on their first mission downrange. Integrate all forms of Army, joint and multinational fires. Your comments on the VSO program reflect this human domain mistake currently being made in AFG --in the CIDG there were major differences between almost and I mean almost all camps---one did what one had to do in one's particular AO not what one was doing say in I Corp when you were in III or IV Corp in VN. THEN the IED game got serious as it was the Duke vs a thinking/adapting UW team meaning once they understood jamming principles they simply starting moving the trigger away from the IED in order to figure out the jamming distance which took about ten days of real attempts to figure it out and then they were off and running again. How does the textbook's discussion of Anglo-American settlers in the Ohio Valley support or challenge each of the historians' arguments regarding British policy? Indeed, in any stability op or war scenario beyond covert support/sabotage of an indigenous government it is the CF that will lead the main effort and take the majority of the blame for screwing it up (rightfully so). 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. At worst they are used as paradigms with which our force must use when thinking about, planning for, and acting during operations. Maya, like the Aztecs and Inca, also practiced human sacrifice. Maya civilization, often considered to be the most exalted and mysterious of the three, inhabited the Yucatan Peninsula of Eastern Mexico as long ago as 2,6002,6002,600 B.C. That's a good one. This philosophy, for instance, leaves us enamored with metrics and attempting to quantify the unquantifiable. Indeed. Also let me suggest that our enemies may have a better understanding of our political objective -- and, thus, the war that we and they are embarked upon -- than do many of our leaders and soldiers. The problem is that we are attempting to put tacit knowledge- that which is hard or impossible to explain- into the same form (doctrine) as explicit knowledge- that which can be categorized, detailed, and made into a list. "YOU (meaning the US military and agencies with which it works) are a part of the human domain and you cannot divorce yourselves from any of it. The sublime for SOF, especially those within the Special Warfare framework, can also be art. The use of "human domain" is really a simple attempt to cover up the abject failure of "understanding the environment" before they deployed. Rather, they are a heuristic model for understanding descriptively the way power can be directed to achieve ends on the battlefield. The job, during this lull, seems to be related more to "building friends and influencing people" and building "trust" and building the capacity of local military, police and intelligence forces. For those that do not believe it is possible to have a drug driven insurgency vs the more common Islamist insurgencies we have been seeing for the last ten years-----Mexico is the proof of concept and it is spreading rapidly into the US. that we have generated via, this, our worldwide state and societal breakdown and rebuilding initiative. I say for the most part because the education and personnel systems these individuals fall under are all less than desired, largely beholden to the conventional forces systems and with respect to education- are a lower priority within USSOCOM. -- as produced by the enemy -- seems to be a step ahead of our own? Art isnt something one does while coloring within the lines and SOF shouldnt be looking for a methodology to assist us with it. Entire tribes vanished as smallpox, scarlet fever, and influenza decimated the native population of the Americas. At the same time, an integrated sustainment network would link . ~ Army Pubs. Agree with you that a deeper problem (THE problem?) You cannot believe how many times I tried to explain that to MNF-I in countless HUMINT reports. 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. These two occurrences arguably have brought Special Operations to a level similar to the rest of DoD wherein the most important priority among the hierarchy is the growth of the bureaucracy. 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. What we in the military seem to forget is that the enemy always has a voice and especially in Iraq where the education levels are high they were a quick adapting organism whose ecosystem was built on the Darwinian principle of survival which has always been the top rule for a guerrilla force. Cortez went to the city and took Montezuma hostage, taking advantage of the fact that Aztecs thought that the Spaniards were descendants of their god, Quetzalcoatl, and had come to fulfill a prophecy. The human domain![vi] This conversation happened, supposedly, in the context of a discussion about the Armys Seventh Warfighting Function (WfF),". The success of unified action depends on the application of capabilities that influence the perceptions, understanding, and actions of relevant populations To operate more effectively in the land domain while fully accounting for the human aspects of conflict and war, the Army requires a warfighting function to capture the tasks and systems that provide lethal and nonlethal capabilities to assess, shape, deter, and influence the decisions and behavior of a people, its security forces, and its government.. Doing the SF legacy mission with none of the high selectivity. The Forgotten Histories of the Codification of International Humanitarian Law in Nineteenth-Century Latin America, Crafting Strategy for Irregular Warfare: A Framework for Analysis and Action (2nd Edition), South Africas organised crime climbs to Italys levels, racing past Mexico, Somalia and Libya, Opinion | The Foreign Policies of the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG Part V: Europes Supercoke & on- the-Horizon Issues and the Middle East, Opinion | The Foreign Policies of the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG Part IV: Europes Cocaine & Meth Markets, Airstrikes, Civilian Casualties, and the Role of JAGs in the Targeting Process, Opinion | The Foreign Policies of the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG Part III: Africa, The cartels flexed their power in Tijuana and now the battle for influence is on, Organized Crime in Mexico and the Evolving Government Response, Armies are re-learning how to fight in cities, Law and the Ayman al-Zawahiri airstrike: a dozen Qs & As, Informe alerta sobre contrabando de cigarrillo, narcotrfico y Hezbol, Iran Seeks to Increase Its Influence in Latin America, Experts Warn, International Humanitarian Law in Urban Warfare, ATP 3-06/MCTP 12-10B, Urban Operations (JUL 22), Latest Atrocities Highlight the Importance of Early Warning. 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. They will have used their collective MIEs to survive assault from all of the above weapon system and platforms - by units as small as 4 man SF teams, as rapid as Air Mobile and as overwhelming as a mechanized Infantry Brigade. 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". Thus, "knowing one's enemy" seems to be taking a back seat to building partner trust and building partner capacity during this new period of peace. [xii] See Carl Builders book, Masks of War, Johns Hopkins University Press, FEB, 1989, for a description of why the services act the way they do. Emerging from a 101010 collection of city-states with no central government, the Maya reached a cultural peak between A.D. 250250250 and 900900900. Neither did 202020 the Maya have a single emperor, though its kings were venerated as godlike, as in the Inca and Aztec cultures. Last but by no means least the BCT can access the entire conventional arsenal of the US Armed Forces. The movement in Mexico is called the Autodenfensa---so it is a typical mission for SF---it would have been in fact a mission in the 60/70s---I have deployed with less information and holding the mission-- assist the locals. They KNOW what our political objective is and, therefore, they KNOW who is their friend and their enemy and they KNOW what kind of war they are embarked upon. Since the Cold War and especially since 9/11, the Army has stayed very large and SOF has grown even more. [x] Of course, that does not leave too much left. AND if one does not believe that an insurgency does not learn from past events--just check the latest strategy statement from AQ issued Sept 2013. movement of forces for the purpose of gaining an advantage over the enemy in order to accomplish our objectives. [ix] Sacolick, Bennet S. & Grigsby, Wayne W, Jr., Special Operations/Conventional Forces Interdependence: A Critical Role in Prevent, Shape, Win, Army Magazine, JUN 2012, 39-40. Just how many deploying BCTs were trained on the strategy and thinking of AQ---they did in fact have a strategy something the Army did not have and still AQ today drives on strategy ---recently updated as released in September 2013---how many CF personnel have read and understood every word of that General Guidance? The primary purpose of the command and control warfighting function is to assist commanders in integrating then other elements of combat power (leadership, information, M2, intelligence, fires, sustainment, and protection) to achieve objectives and accomplish missions. I don't mean to sound cryptic but I don't want to open up a can of worms now when I plan to do some fishing later. the applies not only to AQ but to most of the worldwide Sunni insurgent groups. The DOD Command and Control Research has identified and developed a model with three distinct but closely interconnected domains [xxxii] And what were really talking about is internalized social change. The Staff may have been there a week but no more than a year. Information Briefing Format II. Identifies strength and weaknesses, Encompasses all activities required to sustain (beans, bullets, band aids), measures taken to protect friendly forces, management and integration of info, deliberate integration with warfighting functions. It prioritizes education and training over platforms and technology as well as persistent engagement over drone strikes, direct action raids, and Hollywood movies. [xxxi] The reflective practitioner is one who reflects critically on all that is done and is never too intellectually lazy to rely on institutional paradigms unconsciously- the professional within refuses such shortcuts. We have to take a look at the paradox of the human domain before we can offer a way out of this conceptual mess weve made for ourselves. In a broader Operational sense our inability to align Tactical success with Strategic success might stem from the possibility we are mistaking UW for Revolution, Resistance or Secession. I would argue that we had all the understanding concerning the human factor by 2006 in literally hundreds of intelligence reports and interrogation reports---the abject failure was not on the SF side as the JSOC targeting against FF and AQI gave the CF a chance to focus their attention on the actual Sunni/Shia insurgent groups---the abject failure was the simple fact that up to even 2010 no deploying BCT fully "understood" what they were "seeing" as no one took the time inside CF to process the sheer amount of data available into a coherent training program. Protection efforts must consider and account for threats and hazards in all directions, at all times, and in all environments. [xxviii] To be fair, the writers of this first iteration of the handbook were given a very short timeframe with which to complete the project. These arent mechanized divisions we are attempting to outflank or terrorists we are killing in the human domain, these are very contextual-dependent groups of people whose values we are attempting to appreciate and either influence or employ to some effect. Russia and Ukraine battle daily in the sky. In the dynamic environment of LSCO, self-reliance and aggressive action are key. Personally, I disagree. The endurance of Army forces is primarily a function of their sustainment. QUOTE: Others, more inclined toward and adept at reflection-in-action, nevertheless feel profoundly uneasy because they cannot say what they know how to do, cannot justify its quality or rigor.. But destroying the physical tools of war does not eliminate the reasons people fight. While I'm at it, let me show you the type of thing I like to consider (my favorite topic, Americans and their reactions to "South Asia"): There is a book called, The Life and Loves of a United States Naval Aviator by Harry Carter which describes in a few passages his time (along with his wife) in Pakistan working with the Navy. The warfighting functions are the physical means that tactical commanders use to execute operations and accomplish missions assigned by superior tactical- and operational-level commanders. Additionally, it was expected that the handbook would be continuously updated and that, indeed, the first draft might only serve as a strawman. I dont ever remember reading anything where General Lee thought he could defeat and outright destroy the Army of the Potomac so his chosen course of action was one based on influencing the power base, the northern citizenry correct? Thus, the tone is one of preparations and preemption -- not participation in ongoing battles and conflicts. Because the underlying social rules and mechanisms are created by humans, they are constantly evolving over time and geography. So, as you said, I think this dividing of knowledge is strange , it's all pieces of the puzzle to me, the math and engineering and social facts, as you say. But it all needs to be there, you can't skimp on one part of it. 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This fact is the real ball-breaker. 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. With this understanding of (1) our national goal and objective and (2) the problems and responsibilites related thereto, and with an acknowledgement that the resources we have to accomplish these missions and to deal with these problems and responsibilities have been greatly diminished, now let us consider thoughts on the "human domain" generally and the ideas presented by LTC Martin specifically (re: participatory observation, critical realism, less rather than more troops, etc.) Even our own COIN doctrine- which implies that that type of activity is counterproductive, cannot rescue us from the technically rational system, of which it is, ultimately, also a part of. Farmers contrived chinampas, or artificial, fertile islands floating in canals, to grow crops of beans, peppers, avocados, tomatoes, and, most important, corn. [xxvi] The tactical level (young NCOs and officers) seems in my experience to have largely remained mission-focused and results oriented. It is often seen as the opposite of Foreign Internal Defense (FID), an umbrella term encompassing COIN. The self, the psyche, must be involved somewhere. -- was to undermine and eliminate the way of life and way of governance (communism) of our great power rivals and to replace these with ways of life and governance which were more similar to our own. Why assume that the SF/SOF community does not appreciate its "pred" and other feeds in conducting night raids and more typical pattern of life? I like your example of Lee and the South using his understanding of the "human domain": influence the population to put pressure on the President. A WFF is a group of tasks and systems (people, organizations, information, and processes) united by a common purpose that commanders use to accomplish missions and training objectives (FM 3-0). This website uses cookies to improve your experience. [xxxix] Some will argue vehemently that SOF values education, but in my experience the resources spent on education are a far cry from what is spent on equipping. Kilcullen strangely got it right in his time in Iraq, but Gen. P misused it to establish the he won the surge comments and NOW Kilcullen is coming back to it in his latest book about seven years to late. A warfighting function is a group of tasks and systems (people, organizations, information, and processes) united by a common purpose that commanders use to accomplish missions and training objectives. [xxxix] To engage most effectively within the human domain- our SW forces should be supported with an education and training institution second to none. 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