The Army Needs To Be Ready To Fight In Megacities
BY Herschel Smith
2 years, 11 months ago
Back in 2016, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley had warned that the Army needed to be ready to fight in megacities. But training still falls at mostly the squad, platoon and sometimes company level.
I missed this when it came out. So what on earth persuaded the man to believe that the U.S. military is capable of logistically supporting and sustaining operations across the pond in “megacities?” We couldn’t even do it in Afghanistan. A few trucks blown up at the Torkham Crossing would shut down supply lines to Afghanistan for days.
Wait. What group of megacities is he talking about?
On December 8, 2021 at 11:14 pm, Fred said:
Well, the conference that Laura, (yes that’s her name, the major general who’s holding the conference is named Laura) anyway, Laura has invited first responders so I recon they plan on attacking US megacities with local government assistance and support. I’m for it. Let’s blow up our own cities and kill our neighbors. Seems reasonable to me.
On December 8, 2021 at 11:16 pm, George 1 said:
Well if he is talking about the “megacities” in CONUS that will be interesting. He better bring a whole lot of soldiers to a place like LA. The gangs there won’t much cotton to military types running around. The Army will find the gangs are much better armed than the Taliban and every bit as bloodthirsty.
This from the article: “Wooldridge’s boss, Maj. Gen. Laura Yeager, commander of the 40th Infantry Division”. HA HA. What could go wrong?
On December 9, 2021 at 12:13 am, Georgiaboy61 said:
@ Herschel
Re: “Wait. What group of megacities is he talking about?”
Apropos of that question, as far back as 2014, the Small Wars Journal, a professional journal in military circles, published an innocuously-titled article “Full-Spectrum Operations in the Homeland: A Vision of the Future,” by Jennifer Weber, Ph.D. and Kevin Benson, Ph.D.
It’s subject was the prospect of ‘full-spectrum’ military operations by the U.S. Army on American soil, in a counter-insurgency role. However, what raised more-than-a-few-eyebrows at the time was that Weber, a University of Kansas history professor and Benson, a retired U.S. Army colonel, had as the ‘enemy’ in their thought-piece “insurrectionists’ connected with the “Tea Party” movement and white-supremacist groups in the rural South.
Gee, in that context, the unstated purpose of America’s endless ‘small wars’ and counter-insurgency campaigns in places like Iraq and Afghanistan over the last thirty years now come into focus: Just getting trained up for the ‘big show’ back in CONUS, dontcha know!
The scuttlebutt I have heard/seen, is that the military is pretty much split down the middle. Most of the general/staff officers are in the tank for the communists/left, as well as some of the field-grade and company-grade officers and staff NCOs. Part of the mid-level officer ranks, a few generals and admirals here and there, and most of the NCOs and EMs are loyal Americans. But this intel is past its sell-by date and I don’t know if it is legitimate any longer.
The “Small Wars Journal” article, if nothing else, provides a crystal-clear window into the world-view and thought-processes of our ruling class and the deep-state. The communists/left often telegraph their intentions in inadvertent ways, and this may be another example of that.
On December 9, 2021 at 3:50 am, Wendy said:
https://www.nationalguard.mil/portals/31/Features/ngbgomo/bio/2/2928.html
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2845646822353102
Maj. Gen. Yeager on Women’s History Month
At 4:50 mark says she would like to see females in the Army closer to 50%.
On December 9, 2021 at 6:23 am, Matt Bracken said:
They are living in fantasy land. We fled Afghanistan in disgrace. We’d get our asses handed to us in Ukraine. Our woke CRT Marxist LGBTQ+ (the + is for pedophile) military is totally detached from reality.
On December 9, 2021 at 7:38 am, Bob Yuncle said:
I thought fighting in megacity was 100% the responsibility of Judge Dredd, drokk it!
On December 9, 2021 at 8:07 am, Bill Buppert said:
I highly recommend the more sober findings of Timothy Thomas in the essay below examining the Battle of Grozny in 1995 by the Russians:
file:///Users/bill/Downloads/1999-06-01%20The%20Battle%20of%20Grozny-Deadly%20Classroom%20for%20Urban%20Combat%20(Thomas).pdf
The technical difficulties of supplies and communications is one thing but the disaggregated nature of block by block fighting by fire teams and squads and the command and control issues at the company level much less battalion and Brigade Combat Team is immense.
In the War to Save Josef Stalin, the Russians encountered many problems in city fighting in Germany and the Americans in Aachen [one of the rare city fights by Allies in the west in Europe].
And, of course, the Germans in Stalingrad.
Herschel’s son has many tales to tell of Fallujah, I’m sure.
There’s another aspect to this that the US encountered in AFG and Iraq, high density areas have women and children and their injury and death is the surest way to swell the ranks of resistance and rebellion.
Again, as I have mentioned before, the arrogant COINdinistas at Small Wars Journal are mostly on the government supremacist bandwagon.
Imagine, if you will, the US invading and trying to control “favelas” in Brazil.
The mind reels…
On December 9, 2021 at 8:38 am, Nosmo said:
If the “megacities” referred to are in CONUS, I really, really, really think that won’t turn out the way they believe it will:
Rule #1: There no rules.
Rule #2: See rule # 1.
Ad infinitum
And, if they’re stupid enough to try it overseas, well, I won’t stand in their way but I would strongly suggest a very intense re-examination. (Actually, it would be worse than that – apocalyptic losses overseas would reduce, probably eliminate, any capacity to protect CONUS which would open us up to a high potential of invasion by our Chinese Overlords-to-Be. Then again, so would a few months of “in CONUS” operations, so…..).
On December 9, 2021 at 9:31 am, Fred said:
@george1, the gangs are also very well funded and organized. The sudden appearance of mounted light machine guns on armoured pickups under the direction of mobility command and control would deeply perplex Laura and her cohorts. LA would be a meat grinder, in fact, it’s already lost.
On December 9, 2021 at 9:48 am, Frank Clarke said:
Hmm…
http://frankclarke.dx.am/TipPtPage.html
No battle plan ever survives first contact with the enemy.
On December 9, 2021 at 12:20 pm, George1 said:
@fred
Very true. Most of this was known back in the early 90s. The gangs and the cartels they represent have only become stronger since then.
On December 9, 2021 at 1:06 pm, billrla said:
“Small Wars Journal” is a rag where woke wanna-be military writers go to flex their bona fides and fluff up their their CVs. It’s not a serious publication.
On December 9, 2021 at 1:18 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
@ billrla
Re: ““Small Wars Journal” is a rag where woke wanna-be military writers go to flex their bona fides and fluff up their their CVs. It’s not a serious publication.”
Yeah, you can say that again! But if your comment is correct – and there’s no reason I can see that it would not be – what does it say about our military-national defense establishment that so many of its “leaders” have published therein or at least read and underlined the articles in it?
And if “Small Wars Journal” isn’t a “serious” military publication, pray tell, what is? Does such a thing even exist any longer?
On December 9, 2021 at 2:02 pm, scott s. said:
Proceedings of the US Naval Institute
On December 9, 2021 at 2:36 pm, Steady Steve said:
The Army War College war gamed a situation of civil war or general armed resistance against the government. In every scenario they used, the federal government collapses in a few months. State governments would be more resilient but blue states would lose control of their cities. Most of the problems stem from a divided military. Smart governors like Ron DeSantis in Florida are forming or better supporting their own State Guards.
On December 9, 2021 at 6:00 pm, Sisu said:
Well, at least we all now know that the US Military SOP is to leave most of their equipment behind when they turn tail. … And, do the “jabs, to-date” with the impending “future insults”, now that fraudchi has announced will continue as the definition of “fully vaccinated” continues to evolve, enhance or hinder the ability to ascend and descend the stairs of “tall buildings” ?
Apologies to those still serving and bearing the indignities of the Pentagon Morons and demonrats (and impotent rinos). … I sincerely wish it were my fight and I was serving; I’d rather be serving than removed and receiving the benefit. … And, in some ways it might be easier than having to continually confront the stupidity of the “general” (hopefully not majority of the) population. …
Maintain a long term focus. Same as those who served and were abused by the stupidity of prior generations of “generals” and their “politicians”.
On December 9, 2021 at 10:11 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
@ George I
Re:”Very true. Most of this was known back in the early 90s. The gangs and the cartels they represent have only become stronger since then.”
The late Colonel John Boyd, and the circle around him in the Pentagon military-reform movement from the 1980s forward, people like John Robb, Chet Richards and Bill Lind – frequently discussed “failed” or “hollow” states, in which the central government has lost some degree of control to non-state entities within the borders of the nation so-impacted.
A nation needn’t have been fully-functional to fail. Some states are propped-up only by external or other influences, and fall apart as soon as that aid is withdrawn. The much-ballyhooed Afghan national government and army – which dried up and blew away like so much dust in the wind once the U.S. fled the premises – is a contemporary example.
Once the freebies and swag were gone, many of the Afghan army personnel deserted and went back to their tribal homelands. Afghanistan is a nation with a functional centralized government really only in name; the government controls Kabul and maybe a few other cities and urban areas, but the rest of the country – especially by night – belongs to the tribes (Pashto, Dari, etc.) and the various irregular groups active in the hinterlands, from the Taliban to whatever the flavor of the week happens to be.
Mexico isn’t much better, but at least Mexico is functional-enough that most parts of the county pass for the first-world. But the parts controlled or contested by the cartels, even the police are very hesitant to enter without an armed escort – or safe passage guaranteed by the local cartel bosses. And if they have to ask the cartel’s permission to enter, then there’s your answer about who really runs that piece of territory. It sure ain’t Mexico City.
I try to follow events there – especially along the U.S.-Mexico border – as I have friends and family who live in S. Arizona. I remember a few years ago, maybe 5-6 years now, a buried weapons cache was found near the Mexican border on the U.S. side in Arizona.
If I remember correctly, a rancher discovered it by happenstance. Anyway, the buried cache was enough weapons, gear, ammo and the like to fully-equip a company of light infantry as well as any regular Mexican army unit. Crew served weapons – including GPMGs and mortars – explosives, including mines; assault rifles with copious amounts of ammunition; field gear; rocket launchers; NVGs & IR equipment; comms gear – you name it, they had it.
The cartels are so powerful that they handle reform-minded cops and government officials in the same brutal, open and graphic way. They are offered a choice of “plomo e plata,” which in Spanish means “lead or silver.” Silver as in taking the money and cooperating with them, or lead as in getting a bullet in the head if you do not. And just to make sure recalcitrant folks get the clue, they are in the habit of leaving severed heads of their opponents in conspicuously-public places to send a message.
Oh, and in what is surely the sort of knowledge the deep-state in this country does not want ordinary American citizens to know, civilian-organized “militia” or community self-defense groups have been formed in some violence-torn areas of Mexico, and a few have had great success in fighting the cartels and keeping them out.
On December 9, 2021 at 11:25 pm, George 1 said:
@ Georgiaboy61
Yep. All true. Another thing the U.S. Army might be shocked about is the number of their soldiers who are actual gang members. That fact would surely come into play if they try to initiate COIN ops in any large American city, especially one like LA.
On December 10, 2021 at 12:28 am, Georgiaboy61 said:
@ George I
Re: “All true. Another thing the U.S. Army might be shocked about is the number of their soldiers who are actual gang members. That fact would surely come into play if they try to initiate COIN ops in any large American city, especially one like LA.”
That’s the irony, right? Lloyd Austin and Mark Milley bloviate endlessly about “white supremacy” and privilege and all of that Cultural Marxist/woke rot, yet you don’t see a whole lot of skinheads joining the gov.mil to learn weapons and tactics, now do you? The biggest L.A. and Chicago street gangs have been sending their members in the army and Marines for years, in order to learn stuff on Uncle Sugar’s dime. Ditto the Muslim Brotherhood and their front groups in this country, too. Well, the ones that don’t just up and go to the Middle East or North Africa and learn it on the job.
Can’t recall precisely, but saw a stat some years back that rape of males was endemic in the military, particularly minority gangs going after whites. It isn’t only women who endure such abuse, but the men, too.
Is it just me, or are our armed forces beginning to look as bad as in the old days of the post-Vietnam 1970s “broken force”?
I am a long-time black-belt level martial artist, and for years taught teens and adults two nights a week. For some years, whenever I had young people express an interest in the military – I recommended it wholeheartedly. We sent one of our students into the Navy SEAL challenge program, in fact. But come time for Obama to be in office, I stopped doing that and haven’t started back up since.
I could point to a lot of reasons, but the straw that broke the camel’s proverbial back was when the Bush and then Obama governments stabbed our guys in the back for doing their jobs, or trying to do them. And all of the woke nonsense, too, which has been going on for so long now.
On December 10, 2021 at 8:39 am, June J said:
Fight in US megacities? Against whom? The communists already “control” the Democrat owned megacities.
It’s not the cities that would be a problem it’s the rest of the country.
Would the military be saddled with the same ROE as was placed on it for losing in Afghanistan, or would the elites unleash full bore kill all the deplorables?
On December 10, 2021 at 10:02 am, George 1 said:
@June J.
Yes. Of course the deplorables would be the actual, if not always stated, targets of any military operations in CONUS.
On December 10, 2021 at 10:04 am, George 1 said:
@ Georgiaboy61
I wish I lived closer to you. You could teach me some of that Ninja stuff. I am probably too old and feeble to learn it but I could try.
On December 10, 2021 at 12:29 pm, X said:
“What group of megacities is he talking about?”
American ones.
This isn’t exactly new, guys — the Federal army burned Atlanta to the ground in 1864.
On December 10, 2021 at 1:10 pm, billrla said:
Georgiaboy61:
Military thinkers and writers, such as Boyd and Lind, kept their focus on the military problem at hand. Unfortunately, more recent writers bring into the discussion topics that have nothing–repeat, nothing–to do with military problems. Thus, we get articles full of clap-trap about social engineering and social justice; stuff that will get people killed in a real military conflict.
Of course, the same problem affects academic writing. The incentives are all screwed up, because the federal (and state and local) grant-making process is corrupted (make that, purposefully designed) with politically motivated social engineering and social justice criteria. The situation is no different with military publications. Want to get your article published? Make sure to include social engineering and social justice nonsense.
On December 10, 2021 at 5:22 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
@ George I
Re: “I wish I lived closer to you. You could teach me some of that Ninja stuff. I am probably too old and feeble to learn it but I could try.”
Hey, it is never to late to try, right? Well, I mean unless you are bed-ridden or something unfortunate like that. It is a common misapprehension that you need to study for years and years to learn effective hand-to-hand self-defense techniques.
If you want to dive into the deep-end of the pool and really master a system, then maybe it takes that long – but a very useful handful of legit moves can be learned in a much shorter amount of time. Our staff taught 10 week courses, and even 1-2 day workshops all the time to that end. And I have attended many seminars as well as attended those taught by others, and learned much in a short time span.
It all depends on your goals. If you plan on facing high-level or even elite competition, then that obviously implies being a certain age and/or level of fitness, commitment and so forth.
However, most people just want to be able to defend themselves and their loved ones against garden-variety thugs and the like. Since many of those guys are unskilled or semi-skilled – albeit sometimes street-smart and viciously-aggressive – your odds are better. Cops over the years have taught that most street criminals want a victim, not an opponent when they size someone up to roll (mug) them, etc. – which is usually true.
Mindset is critical. Meaning, the idea that you won’t be a victim. That you are determined to resist if it comes to that. In fact, you can argue that the proper frame of mind is one of the most-important things studying empty-handed fighting can teach you. That’s one reason many militaries teach or have taught boxing, MMA or other forms of hand-to-hand fighting – such training enhances the warrior mindset of the participants.
Years ago, a female physician who worked on the near-West side of Chicago, near the UIC Medical Center and Rush Medical Center complexes, as well as Stroeger County Hospital – which was rough, high-crime neighborhood in those days…. was assaulted near Rush Hospital. Her huge assailant picked her up up in a bear hug, intending to drag/take her into someplace hidden where he could rape her.
Despite years of martial arts training, however, at that moment, all of her finely-honed skills and techniques deserted her. All she could think of to do was to claw the guy’s face with her fingernails. Which she did, making ribbons of the assailant’s face and scalp. The “victim” survived – and the attacker was arrested when he later sought medical help in a local ER.
What saved her? IMHO, her mindset and determination not to become a passive victim. Plus some luck, too, which all of us need in such encounters.
But yeah, try out some seminars or workshops if you can. Good way to dip your toe into the pool, so to speak.
On January 3, 2022 at 7:46 pm, Jeff said:
A very good series by Greg bahnsen, “ why I am a postmillennialist”.
https://www.sermonaudio.com/search.asp?seriesOnly=true&currSection=sermonstopic&sourceid=thebahnsenproject&keyword=Why+I+am+Postmillennialist&keyworddesc=Why+I+am+Postmillennialist