The Secessionist Campaign for the Republic of Vermont

From Time via DumpDC, with this Editor's Note:

Editor’s Note: When the topic of Secession is found in the pages of Time Magazine…truly one of the pillars of the Main Stream Media…it means that secession is being taken seriously.

Read it all, please.

Fave line:

***
“It’s an abusive relationship we have with the central government,” says Peter Garritano, a square-jawed 54-year-old Subaru sales manager who is running for lieutenant governor. “We know it’s scary to leave the abusive nest. It’s a comfort zone in its own way. But we think we’ll do better leaving.”
***

Who else might have said something like that back in '08?

And to those who will (correctly) point out the socialist leanings of this endeavor, please read their statement of beliefs in considering the merits of their work.

For others who simply dismiss talk of secession as impractical, I ask:

What is your plan to deal with Leviathan and its resources, and will that plan actually work for those who oppose government tyranny and all other assaults upon the individual?

I'll bet all of those plans have a core of secessionist thinking, with variations mainly on scale and the de facto/de jure continuum.

Audentes fortuna iuvat.

The Latest From Raven's Wood Enterprises

The III Patch passes into history.

This just in from Raven's Wood Enterprises:

Guys,

If you would please post this on your blogs, I'd really appreciate it.

Raven's Wood Enterprises would like to thank all those who purchased the "III" (Threeper) 'Fortune Favors the Bold' patch.

The time has come, due lack of demand, to no longer carry the "Fortune Favors the Bold" patch. Most everyone seems to have what they want, or have decided they like the Nyberg III Flag patch better.

So, all "Threeper" patch orders received to date (1/31/10) have been processed and sent. Any other orders received for the Threeper patch will be returned.

Nyberg III Flag patches will contine to be offered for the foreseeable future.

Thanks again!

Raven's Wood Enterprises, LLC

The Nyberg "III" Flag Woodland patch is still available from Raven's Wood Enterprises, LLC, $3 each post paid. The patches measure approximately 1.9 X 3 inches and are of the same quality that the "Threeper" patches were.

USPS Money Orders, Cashier's & Certified Checks and cash (though any orders in cash are at the sender's sole risk) get immediate processing and shipment. Personal & business check orders are held 10 days until the check clears.

Send all orders to:

Raven's Wood Enterprises, LLC
PO Box 962
Birmingham, MI 48012

Quote of the Month

Jerry Pournelle, on the Mighty Kenyan's SOTU harangue:

Until last night many speculated that Obama would do more or less the same thing [as Clinton did in 1994]. Clinton recognized the unpopularity of his massive government expansion proposal (Hillarycare), understood that the Democratic win was the result of Bush I's repudiation of his "Read my lips, no new taxes!" promise, and moved to govern from the center. Obama didn't follow that path.

Instead he has chosen to double down: you'll get health care reform, cap and trade, climate change regulations, immigration reform, and government expansion whether you like it or not. We know what's best for you.

The speech itself was far more partisan than the State of the Union speech traditionally is. It amounted to a declaration of intent.

He has made next Fall's election an ideological plebiscite pure and simple. If the Democrats hold on to real power after next November, the United States will experience a fundamental change, with trust in central planning and government control of most aspects of the economy and our lives. The people done Obama dirty; we have repudiated the Savior; and we will be made to pay. We will get the changes he wants to give us whether we like it or not. He ran center-left. He has governed hard left. He now promises to change: to go even further left.

Prepare for the fight of our lives. Obama and the ravening wolves have enormous public funds to spend, and will make deals and promises as needed. Those who live off tax and spend will be told to fall in line and support the new United States, and stop asking questions and getting in the way. The alliance between the tax eaters and the ravening wolves will be strengthened.

The nature of the United States and the American Experiment is pretty well being put to the test in next Fall's election.

We are promised Change. You can believe in that.

Latest in the "From Meccania to Atlantis" Series

Having cited previously to this continuing big-picture series in the Brussels Journal, Vanderleun's post of the latest entry reminded us to provide not only that link:

Part 14 (²): Freiheit 451; excerpt:

***
Freedom is no more than a piece of combustible paper: a forbidden book, a speech draft in longhand, a film no longer printed on combustible stock but still setting minds aglow. All tyrannies in recorded history have sought to burn, confiscate and banish that paper or other media that carried the ideas of liberty, and to burn or banish the authors. Nowadays, such tyrannies exist primarily in Dar al Islam and in its lesser franchises of elective dhimmi socialism (abbrev. dhimmisocialism) in Western Europe and Canada and in nascent forms in the United States and Australia....
***

but all of the works to date:

Part 1 -- The March of the Body Snatchers

Part 2 -- From the Clenched Fist to the Raised Middle Finger

Part 3 -- From Encirclement to Breakout

Part 4 -- Tribe

Part 4.5 -- Darkness in the Cranium

Part 5: From Screeching Cats to SDG

Part 5½: Music We Can Believe In

Part 6: When The Music Stops

Part 7: The True Horror in Hitchcock Films

Part 8: Drenched to the Bone

Part 9: Goodbye To All That

Part 10: Tale of the Two Buglers

From Meccania to Atlantis - Part 11: Mugged by Reality

Part 12: Swallowed by Leviathan

Part 12 ½ (1): Central Central Europe

Part 12 ½ (2): Central Central Europe

Part 13 (1): Harpo, Gekko, Barko, Sarko

Part 13 (2): Harpo, Gekko, Barko, Sarko

To understand the magnitude and intensity of the struggle before us, one must understand that the War on Guns and other traditional American freedoms is part of a massive global conflict between the individual and the Collective, be that Collective defined in the language of politics or of alleged "religion".

The losing battle being fought in Europe by Geert Wilders and others (see this speech by Wilders and Wilders' movie Fitna) is precisely the battle we here in North America face, even if we delude ourselves into believing that things have not deteriorated to that point yet.

It is a Holy War that is being waged across the planet by the Collective against the individual, with all of the terror, death, slaughter, and destruction that such catastrophes always bring.

Do you understand yet?

Are you willing to fight in that manner?

A Musical Interlude: "Bohemian Rhapsody", by Hayseed Dixie

Blame Theo.

And yes, you will see those four faces as you try to go to sleep.

Or maybe these four faces.

In either event, you're welcome.

Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide
No escape from reality
Open your eyes
Look up to the skies and see
I'm just a poor boy (Poor boy)
I need no sympathy
Because I'm easy come, easy go
Little high, little low
Any way the wind blows
Doesn't really matter to me, to me

Mama just killed a man
Put a gun against his head
Pulled my trigger, now he's dead
Mama, life has just begun
But now I've gone and thrown it all away
Mama, ooh
Didn't mean to make you cry
If I'm not back again this time tomorrow
Carry on, carry on
As if nothing really matters

Too late, my time has come
Sends shivers down my spine
Body's aching all the time
Goodbye, everybody
I've got to go
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth
Mama, oooooooh
Anyway the wind blows
I don't want to die
Sometimes wish I'd never been born at all

[Guitar Solo]

I see a little silhouetto of a man
Scaramouch, Scaramouch,
Will you do the Fandango?
Thunderbolt and lightning,
Very, very frightening
Me
(Galileo) Galileo (Galileo) Galileo, Galileo Figaro
Magnifico-o-o-o-o
I'm just a poor boy
Nobody loves me
He's just a poor boy
From a poor family
Spare him his life
From this monstrosity

Easy come, easy go, will you let me go?
Bismillah! No, we will not let you go
Let him go
Bismillah! We will not let you go
Let him go
Bismillah! We will not let you go
Let me go (Will not let you go)
Let me go (Will not let you go) (Never, never, never, never)
Let me go, o, o, o, o
No, no, no, no, no, no, no
(Oh mama mia, mama mia) Mama Mia, let me go
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me!

So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye
So you think you can love me and leave me to die
Oh, baby, can't do this to me, baby
Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here

[Guitar Solo]
(Oooh yeah, Oooh yeah)

Nothing really matters
Anyone can see
Nothing really matters
Nothing really matters to me

Any way the wind blows...

Secession and Sound Money

Go and read the latest from Russell Longcore at DumpDC.

Better to be thinking things through in advance, whether as part of a formal de jure secession/repudiation movement or simply as part, de facto, of building a resilient community.

Tempus fugit.

Ranger Handbook

Another essential manual for your downloading and printing pleasure.

After doing so, don't forget to read and practice the material.

Praxis: Tarps & Mikes

Two essentials from Vanderboegh:

Tarp Shelters

Throat Microphones

Marine Rifle Squad

Download here or here.

Read and think.

The Pathetic Princess Fairy Pants

Mark Steyn on Hugh Hewitt, via Maggie's Farm:

***

BHO: By the time I took office, we had a one year deficit of over $1 trillion dollars, and projected deficits of $8 trillion dollars over the next decade. Most of this was the result of not paying for two wars, two tax cuts, and an expensive prescription drug program. On top of that, the effects of the recession put a $3 trillion dollar hole in our budget. All this was before I walked in the door.

HH: Now Mark Steyn, the prescription drug bill, the two wars, the tax cuts, were all in place by the end of 2007 when the deficit was $161 billion.

MS: Right.

HH: Today, it’s $1.35 trillion.

MS: Yeah.

HH: It’s nonsense what he’s saying.

MS: Yes, it is nonsense. I mean, this line that oh, I inherited a huge deficit, so what I’ve done is blown it up to an even larger size makes no sense anyway. But again, I think this is unbecoming in what is essentially a bit of monarchical theater. You know, Bush could very easily have said well look, he could have stood there in the 2002 State of the Union and said look, I inherited this al Qaeda mess from Bill Clinton, because he didn’t have the guts to take out the guy in Afghanistan when he could have. He could have stood there in 2003 and said well look, I inherited this unfinished Iraq business from my predecessor who just wanted to fly over and bomb the no-fly zone once in a while, and that’s unfinished business that I “inherited”. Obama will still be blaming everything on what he “inherited” in years and years to come. It’s time to man up. You’re the president. Nobody forced you to be the president. You wanted the job. Man up or get the hell out of the way. But to stand there blaming in this cheesy, tacky, finger pointing at a guy who’s been gone now for over a year just makes you look Princess Fairy Pants. It’s pathetic...

***

Steyn is savage.

And right.

The Caliphate In Waiting

If you are not regularly reading the Gates of Vienna on the spread of virulent Islam through the world, you should.

This essay is an example of why:

The Caliphate-in-Waiting
by Baron Bodissey

As most readers have already noticed, the United States — and the entire Western world — is well on the way to losing the “War on Terror”.

Oh, we’ve got great weapons, and our war-fighting capabilities have no historical precedent. But this technical and military superiority only serves to highlight the abject failure of our political and cultural defenses.

For the last eight years, even as we waged magnificently successful military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, we have been surrendering piecemeal to our future Islamic masters. Somehow, despite all our firepower, the nations of the West are drifting a little further every year into the rule of Islamic law.

Don’t believe me? Consider some of the bellwethers.

We expended blood and treasure to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan, and now, according to The New York Times, the Taliban are being invited back into polite society:

KABUL, Afghanistan — The leader of the United Nations mission here called on Afghan officials to seek the removal of at least some senior Taliban leaders from the United Nations’ list of terrorists, as a first step toward opening direct negotiations with the insurgent group.

In an interview, Kai Eide, the United Nations special representative, also implored the American military to speed its review of the roughly 750 detainees in its military prisons here — another principal grievance of Taliban leaders. Until recently, the Americans were holding those prisoners at a makeshift detention center at Bagram Air Base and refusing to release their names.

Together, Mr. Eide said he hoped that the two steps would eventually open the way to face-to-face talks between Afghan officials and Taliban leaders, many of whom are hiding in Pakistan. The two sides have been at an impasse for years over almost every fundamental issue, including the issue of talking itself.

This is what we spent billions of dollars and thousands of lives to achieve?

To make matters worse, since gaining our “victories” in Afghanistan and Iraq, we have eagerly enshrined sharia law in the Afghan and Iraqi constitutions. Oh, yes, the documents are prettied up with all the fine-sounding rights that we would like them to confirm. But both constitutions clearly state that nothing in them may be construed as going against Islamic law.

The most brutal and degrading legal system ever codified was written into those constitutions — by us.

Things weren’t always this bad. Back before 9-11, after the first World Trade Center attack, the Khobar Towers bombing, and the attack on the Cole, the nature of radical Islam was still widely discussed in the media. For a year or two after 9-11, “Islamic terrorism”, “Islamofascism”, and other terms identifying the nature of our enemy were still permitted. Our political and military leaders could still refer — albeit timidly — to “the threat posed by radical Islam”.

But no more. Now we have “violent extremism”, or, grotesquely, “acts that are contrary to Islam”. The Fort Hood report fails even to mention the “I” word. A troubled childhood, social isolation, too high a concentration of PCBs in the environment — anything but Islam is put forward as the cause of terrorist behavior.

The danger posed by Islam — which is a violent, insidious, and deadly political ideology — no longer exists in the public lexicon.

We have been silenced, and we did it to ourselves. No conquering army occupied our capitals to censor our discourse. It was our own doing.

We have denied ourselves the vocabulary to describe the enemy we face.

Before 9-11 an Islamic terrorist might make an occasional appearance as a villain in a movie. But now the fictional terrorists are all neo-Nazis, and any cinematic religious violence is generally restricted to fundamentalist Christians. By common consensus, depictions of Muslims in our popular culture have been sanitized.

And consider our wider cultural self-Islamization. The removal of piggy banks. The deference to Islamic customs during Ramadan. Halal meals in schools, even for non-Muslims. The suddenly-discovered obligation to avoid any and all depictions of Mohammed. The emergence of “Islamic finance”, which was all but unheard of ten years ago.

The most glaring examples of our surrender may be found in the criminalization of speech that criticizes Islam. In the years since 9-11, Europe, Canada, and Australia have seen an explosion of prosecutions for various forms of hate speech and “discrimination” against Muslims. The United States has recently lurched in the same direction with its newest federal “hate crimes” law...

Read the rest.

Any question re the willingness of the Mighty Kenyan and most of Congress to meet this strategic threat?

Thought not....

Kryptonite

Read this essay by Cynthia Yockey, as noted by Instapundit; excerpt:

***
...But Firefox is crashing on me frequently these days, so I have been flipping through The True Believer while I am waiting for it to start up. In the process, I discovered Obama’s Kryptonite. Not the green, deadly one — the more benign gold Kryptonite that would simply strip him of his superpowers forever. (Boo-yah!)

Obama’s Kryptonite is ridicule. Especially when mixed with shame.

Fortunately, Obama has supplied conservatives with plenty of material.

And we’d better get busy with the ridiculing, mocking, derision, scorn, belittling, shaming, parodying, satirizing and lampooning toot sweet like our lives, homes, families, nation and the world depend on it.

Because they do...
***

It's not just the Mighty Kenyan.

It's every lousy, stinking, twisted moral cripple -- of both parties, all branches, and every level of government -- who lives to impose their will on other human beings.

They want you to tremble at their unlimited power.

Laugh at them instead.

Spit at them.

Mock them and their delusions.

Encourage others to do so as well.

It's what real Americans do.

Latest "Day The Dollar Died" Installment

Is here.

Prior installments here.

Hyperinflated Entitlements

(click on graph to enlarge; illustration courtesy of The Daily Reckoning)

Hyperinflated Entitlements

by Tom Baugh

A few weeks ago, First Wife and I were standing in line at the market, and ahead of us was a woman with a cart full of junk food. Hidden among the junk was a coloring book strategically placed there by the little girl darting around her as the child worked to place the items on the conveyor. During a moment of inattention by the mother, up went the coloring book, partly covered by a bag of death doughnuts. The coloring book inched its way toward the cashier, until, at the last moment as the clerk’s hand reached for it, the mother sprang into action.

Snatching it away, she chided the girl, “I told you we don’t buy this kind of trash.”

Of course not. Why should she want to help the girl improve her mind or her artistic ability for the price of a half-bag of doughnuts? After all, that’s not the mother’s responsibility, is it?

This clearly wasn’t the first such disappointment for the girl, as she stood there with stoic eyes while the mother fumbled around in her wallet, eventually producing a little debit card with a big Georgia peach on it.

And then I understood.

Here in Georgia, as in many states, entitlements such as food stamps are now implemented electronically. Recipients of this largesse now carry EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer) cards, which for all intents and purposes, function as normal debit cards. Recipients even get to check their account information online through a system maintained by JPMorganChase. Of course it is. Interested readers can find links to these sites from our page about EBT services in Georgia. You can even find a link there to a related program named Georgia Shines.

Sadly, I’m not making any of this up.

A few days ago, Russ Longcore wrote an article about the effect of a banking collapse and incipient hyperinflation. The picture he paints in that article is realistically grim. If anything, his article may be too optimistic. I say this because for the first time in human history, we are staring down the maw of impending hyperinflation in which the parasites will be insulated from tragedy, while the productive will be singled out for economic and personal destruction. And programs such as the peach card, administered by our wards at JPMorganChase, will be instrumental in this sequence of destruction.

Regardless of the precipitating causes, once an economic crisis begins in earnest, as Russ correctly predicts, all of your money in the bank will immediately become inaccessible. Your credit cards will probably become inaccessible soon after, since the banks will reasonably assume that you won’t have the ability to pay them back, or will want to pay them back in little tiny hyperinflated dollars. But fortunately, our fellow card-holding citizens won’t have this problem.

It is obvious that during periods of hyperinflation governments respond by printing more money, worsening the hyperinflation. But printing money doesn’t necessarily mean ink and paper. Our government can easily print more money right now, with zero materials cost, simply by adding more zeroes to the end of all those EBT accounts. What yesterday was a peach card (or longhorn card or whatever) with a balance of five hundred dollars could tomorrow easily contain five thousand dollars, or five million dollars. Spend all you want, they’ll make more. Overnight, food stamp recipients could become the richest people you know. Meanwhile, you won’t even be able to buy a carton of eggs. Maybe they’ll let you wash their cars for a few crumbs from their plates.

And why would our government charge up those cards with fake money? Why, for the same reason that they issued all those cards in the first place: to attract and keep a solid block of voters. This isn’t rocket science.

But what about food shortages? Won’t the shelves be bare? Not necessarily, at least to start. For a while, those rapidly inflating Electronic Benefits Transfer cards (I never get tired of appreciating the honesty in that name) will keep the supermarkets afloat. Because our peach card heroes will be able to sustain their purchases of expensive junk food, the stores will keep pace with hyperinflation and be able to continue to bring goods in to stock. It will be a surreal situation: stores stocked with goods, but you won’t be able to afford to buy any of it. How do you think that will make you feel, standing in line behind someone who can buy anything they want, while you had to scrape together enough to buy a half-dozen eggs? Of course, they are buying these goods with money created by destroying your savings, but hey, that’s just a detail.

But it isn’t just food stamp recipients. No sir. With a little bit of imagination, one can easily uncover many more groups who will benefit from executive orders pumping up their equivalent of peach cards. Retirees living on fixed incomes from Social Security could easily enjoy the same hyperinflated perk with a stroke of a pen. As could government employees, including the military, law enforcement, and key government contractors; in short, anyone who gets a government check. In the depth of such a crisis, producers of original value will suddenly find themselves impoverished; yet surrounded by public servants and beneficiaries of enforced charity who barely notice anything is wrong. Other than that your attitude suddenly got a lot worse. Maybe they ought to take your guns away, just in case you start getting ideas.

We can actually already see the seeds of this situation in action today. If you have a stable government job, for example, it is a great time to buy a house. You will probably qualify for all you need to buy a great house at rock bottom prices. Too bad for the sap who spent his life saving to buy that house and now can’t afford the payments. Never mind that increasingly oppressive regulations, combined with tightening of credit, drove him out of business or cost him his job. He should have been smart enough to have a government job in the first place. Everyone knows that’s where the real action is. For those getting the checks with all the flags on them, or their electronic equivalent, these are boom times. Couldn’t be better, in fact, except with more of the same, of course.

I’ve maintained for a while that they, the unproductive parasites, do indeed surround us, the productive few who generate original value. Parasites rarely decide to become productive. Worse, some currently productive people, with enough coercion and misery, will, in desperation, turn to parasitism. Facing poverty, that former body shop owner might decide to join Obama’s domestic security forces, for example. That’s a great path out of poverty, but too bad it makes him a little more unsympathetic to your particular plight. Maybe the tasering won’t kill you when you lose it and start yelling at that peach card leech ahead of you in line at the store. If it does kill you, at least your family will get your tiny little insurance dollars. Oh wait, I forgot, you were committing the crimes of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest at the time. Sorry, no insurance either.\

The bottom line is we are surrounded, and we will become more surrounded with each passing day. Crises will only work to increase the rate at which our fellow man decides to jump sides. Eventually, there will be very few of us left.

So, what do we, the productive people, do about this? Scribble some more signs and have more rallies? Nope. These things only waste your precious time, because our enemies aren’t simply innocent sheeple. No, by now each of these people have made conscious decisions to eat you alive. We have to get over the idea that with enough education, people will wake up and set things straight. There are just too many of them now who profit from taking everything you have worked for your entire lives, and destroying everything of value in this country. We have to understand who the real enemies of liberty are. The leaders whose names we know are merely the agents of the teeming, anonymous masses.

But there is hope for us. Oddly enough, our salvation will come by steering a course directly through the heart of the storm. One of the neat features about crises is that they so easily spin out of control, almost by definition. Some of those guys who decided to join the parasites to police you happened to be filling an essential economic cog unawares. We never know how the ripples of economic activity splash and slosh, but at some point, some farmer isn’t going to get his feed or fuel delivery, and ten thousand chickens will die. Or a crop doesn’t get harvested in time, or the pipeline breaks and the guy who knows how to fix it has been replaced by a quota. Or went into cardiac arrest or cracked his head after being tasered for yelling at some leech in the supermarket.

The unpredictable and uncontrollable free market economy which tyrants disdain is exactly the economy which feeds, houses, clothes, and warms four hundred million people (illegals included) in this country. Wrap a chain around that economy, and it will start leaking value in every direction, none of them good. No matter how bad it gets for the productive individual in the short term, the leeches will receive their due some winter. All you need to do until then is to be able to survive through that winter. Other authors help prepare you accordingly for that. In the meantime, as discussed in How Many Shoes?, prepare yourself for long-term survival by learning something useful which you can trade later with your productive brethren.

Later, trimmed of all the fat in the herd, we will then be able to restore Constitutional principles to their rightful place without all the parasites who think that great document just gets in their way of stealing from you.

Tom Baugh is the author of Starving the Monkeys, Fight Back Smarter. He is also a former Marine, patented inventor, entrepreneur, and professional irritant.

What's With The Alphabet Soup?

I'll bet more than one of you is wondering, "What's with all of the military manuals and all of the acronyms?"

It's pretty simple, actually.

As you have read repeatedly here at WRSA, the organizing principles of this shop are:

1) We're screwed

2) There's gonna be a fight

3) Let's win

In this post, we defined the third element as follows:

1) Survive the first die-off.

2) Keep your kids alive.

3) Kill the enemy.

4) Keep fighting.

5) Stay alive.

That's the "what" of the plan -- what is it that a member of Nock's Remnant must do in order to claim (at least tactical) victory over the Bad People.

So knowing what to do is a piece of the puzzle.

But how to accomplish those objectives is a different analysis, from the individual all the way up to the large group level.

"How" is the point of the alphabet soup exercises.

No, no one here (who isn't already doing so) is likely to be leading formal military teams either today or tomorrow.

But if someone has a better idea for non .mil folks to start to learn how to think through problems of offense, defense, tactics, and strategy, please feel free to add your detailed thoughts below.

In the meantime, think about the challenges you will face in terms of the "5WH" framework of classic journalism:

What?

Who?

Where?

When?

Why?

How?

See how using that framework helps to inject structure into chaos?

The .mil acronyms of METT-TC, OAKOC, ASCOPE, BAMCIS, SMEAC, SALUTE, and others soon-to-com serve the same purpose as 5WH -- that is, easily-remembered tools by which order can be imposed on chaos so as to increase the chances of overall success.

So bear with us.

Read the material.

Comment, add, amend, or disagree.

But read and learn the material.

More chaos than anyone could imagine is headed our way.

And soon.

US Marine Corps - Scouting and Patrolling MCWP 3-11.3

Go, read, and print a copy (sorry -- downloads disabled).

Seems like there might be a call for these skill sets during Professor Bernanke's second term, ja?

Tempus fugit.

UPDATE 2250 EST 29 JAN 2010: Downloadable version here, thanks to the anonymous commenter below.

BAMCIS and SMEAC: More Building Blocks

From FMST 1214:

Five Paragraph Order

TERMINAL LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. In an operational environment, utilize Operations Orders, to meet mission requirements. (FMST-FP-1214)

ENABLING LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Without the aid of references, given a description or title, identify the purpose of a Warning Order, per student handout. (FMST-FP-1214a)

2. Without the aid of references, given a description or title, identify the information in a warning order, per the student handout. (FMST-FP-1214b)

3. Without the aid of references, given a description or title, identify the information in an Operation Order, per the student handout. (FMST-FP-1214c)

4. Without the aid of references, given a description or title, identify the purpose of a Fragmentation Order, per the student handout. (FMST-FP-1214d)

5. Without the aid of references, given a description or title, identify the information in a fragmentation order, per the student handout. (FMST-FP-1214e)

6. Without the aid of references, identify the purpose of a Five Paragraph Order, per the student handout. (FMST-FP-1214f)

1. INTRODUCTION

Combat Order - the development of the combat order within BAMCIS begins at the receipt of the mission and does not end with combat, but continues throughout and after the fight in anticipation of the next mission. It includes the techniques by which orders and instructions are organized, sequenced, and transmitted from leaders to subordinates. The combat order is a continuing process with accomplishment of the mission as its main goal. There are many types of orders. We will discuss the three basic types of orders.

BAMCIS - six troop leading steps by which a leader receives, plans, and executes his mission. Troop leading steps are a logical and orderly process for making the best use of time, facilities, and personnel in preparing for and executing an assigned mission. It can be viewed as elements of planning and decision making cycle.

Begin Planning

Arrange for Reconnaissance and Coordination

Make Reconnaissance

Complete Plan

Issue Order

Supervise

Types of Orders

Warning Orders

Warning orders provide subordinates with maximum time available to prepare for an operation or action. They are either oral or written and must adhere as closely as possible at battalion and company level.

Warning orders must, at a minimum, include information regarding the situation and mission, as well as general instructions and specific instructions.

Operation Orders

Operation orders express decisions by commanders that will be implemented in order to accomplish the mission.

Operation orders set forth the situation, mission, decision, plan of action, and method of execution. They convert the commander’s decision into a plan of action and gives direction to the efforts of the command.

The operation order sets forth the who, what, when, and where of the commander’s decision, along with enough of the how and why to ensure intelligent compliance. Operation orders may be written or oral.

Fragmentation Orders

Fragmentation orders are issued when the time element precludes issuance of a complete order. The commander uses the fragmentation order extensively in fast moving situations. Fragmentation orders are supplemented by visits, messages, and other fragmentation orders until the action is completed or a complete order is issued

Fragmentation orders ensure continuous action as a situation develops or as decisions are made. Fragmentation orders omit elements found in a complete order that have not changed since the order was given or the order is unavailable or incomplete at the time of issuance.

Fragmentation orders follow the sequence of the related standard order. At a minimum, they contain the mission statement and execution statement paragraphs from the five paragraph order format.

2. FIVE PARAGRAPH ORDER FORMAT - orders generally adhere to the five paragraph format, though each will differ due to time and information available or required. The purpose of the five-paragraph order is to issue an order in a clear and concise manner by a thorough orientation of the area of operations. A five-paragraph order gives subordinates the essential information needed to carry out the operation. The order converts the leader’s plan into action, gives direction to the efforts of his unit, and provides specific instructions to subordinate elements.

SMEAC - acronym used to help remember the five-paragraph order format:

Situation - the situation paragraph contains information on the overall status and disposition of both friendly and enemy forces. The situation paragraph contains three subparagraphs.

Enemy Forces - this subparagraph contains essential information concerning the enemy’s composition, disposition, and strength based on its size, activity, location, unit, time, and equipment. While focusing on enemy forces there are two acronyms that will assist you with the information you must recall.

SALUTE - this acronym is an established method to remember how and what to report about the enemy. The purpose of SALUTE is to focus your thinking on identifying and locating enemy weaknesses that can be exploited:

Size - enemy squad, platoon, etc.

Activity - enemy digging in, bivouacking

Location - six-digit grid if possible

Unit - type and designation

Time - when the enemy was last observed

Equipment - equipment they possess

DRAW-D - this acronym is used to assist the leader in determining the enemy’s capabilities and limitations:

Defend

Reinforce

Attack

Withdraw

Delay

Friendly Forces - this subparagraph contains essential information concerning the mission of the next higher unit, location and mission of adjacent units, and mission of non-organic supporting units. Information in this subparagraph can be remembered with the acronym HAS - Higher, Adjacent, Supporting.

Attachments and Detachments - units attached or detached from a squad by higher headquarters, including the effective time of attachment or detachment.

Mission - provides a clear and concise statement of what the unit must accomplish. The mission statement is the heart of the order, and should provide information on the who, what, when, where, and why of the order.

Execution - contains the information on how to conduct the operation. The paragraph is divided into three subparagraphs.

Concept of Operations - this is a general explanation of the tactical plan. It includes a brief scheme of the maneuver from start to finish, type of attack, and fire support plan.

Tasks - the specific mission to be accomplished by each subordinate element of the unit will be listed in a separate numbered subparagraph. It is the subordinate’s unit mission statement.

Coordinating Instructions - the specific instructions and tasks that apply to two or more units. This includes order of movement, planned combat formations, tactical and fire control measures (ie. phase lines and checkpoints), and any other tasks that pertain to the mission.

Administration and Logistics - this paragraph contains information or instructions pertaining to rations and ammunition, location of the distribution point, corpsman, aid station, handling of prisoners of war, other administrative and supply matters. This is also known as the four B’s - Beans, Bullets, Band-aids, and Bad guys.

Command and Signal - this paragraph contains instructions and information relating to command and communication functions. It contains two subparagraphs.

Signal - gives signal instructions for the operation such as frequencies, call signs, pyrotechnics, emergency signals, radio procedures, brevity codes, challenges, and passwords.

Command - identifies the chain of command and their location before, during, and after the operation.

***

5 Paragraph Order Review

1. A warning order must consist of how many paragraphs? What are they?

2. Define the acronym SMEAC

3. What questions should be answered in the “M” portion of SMEAC?

4. Under which paragraph would you find information about medical support?

Secession and Football Fundamentals

Read this essay by author Russell D. Longcore as a more principled response to this evening's propaganda lesson by The Mighty Kenyan:

Secession and Football Fundamentals

We are only two weeks away from the Super Bowl. After watching the Minnesota Vikings make mistake after mistake in Sunday’s Championship game, and give away the game to the New Orleans Saints*, I think back to my high school football experiences.

After an embarrassing loss like the Vikings had, our coach would have told us, “Boys, we’re going back to the basics and re-learn the fundamentals of football.”

The fundamentals of football are:

• blocking and tackling
• holding the football tightly and not fumbling the ball
• keep doing your job until the whistle blows
• score more points than the other team
• work as a team, not as individuals
• winning gets you more girls than losing

What could this lesson possibly have to do with state secession, you may ask?

The Secession War of 1776 pitted the English colonies against motherland England and King George. The Declaration of Independence declared the colonies as sovereign nations…as sovereign as England herself.

Soon after the colonial victory, the states ratified the Constitution, which instituted a very strict few duties for the new Federal Government that the states created, and retained all other power to the states and to the People.

Those are the fundamentals of the game.

Over time, the Federal team began doing things for which it had no power or authority. The People’s team began fumbling the ball…and the Federal team always recovered the fumble. The People’s team gave up yardage (sovereignty) on every series of downs. And the referees…the courts…kept throwing flags against the People’s team and hitting them with the penalties.

The game has ceased to be fun to play. The refs have left the field to the Fed team, and now the Feds play however they want. The Fed team makes up its own rules, and the game doesn’t even resemble the fundamentals. And insult above all insults, the Fed team tells the People that they have to keep playing and cannot leave the field.

The whole concept of state secession is to return to the fundamentals. No state would ever consider seceding unless the Federal Government that it helped to create was doing things it ought not do. The fundamentals require that the Federal Government operate within its Constitutional restrictions.

Nullification will not be able to be effective, since there is no American state with a Militia in place to enforce any nullification challenged by the Feds.

Then, you must factor in the reality that the US Constitution has no authority to bind any two persons in any way, and that no legal status exists between the People and the Federal Government. Read Lysander Spooner’s “No Treason.”

So, it is time for the People’s team to walk off the field and stop playing this no-win game. But to do so, seceding states had better revitalize their Militias first.

By the way…free men get more chicks than slaves. Lighten up, Francis!

Secession is the Hope For Mankind. Who will be first?

DumpDC. Six Letters That Can Change History.

*Even though I was rooting for the old guy, Brett Favre (a Mississippi boy), the Saints are a Southern team, and the South is where my heart is. Geaux Saints!

© Copyright 2010, Russell D. Longcore. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.

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More On METT-TC

More on METT-TC, this time from Appendix B of FM 6-0:

RELEVANT INFORMATION SUBJECT CATEGORIES—METT-TC

B-10. Relevant information is all information of importance to the commander and staff in the exercise of command and control (FM 3-0). In the context of information management, the six factors of METT-TC—mission, enemy, terrain and weather, troops and support available, time available, and civil considerations—make up the major subject categories into which relevant information is grouped for military operations. The commander and staff consider RI for each category in all military operations. The relative impact of each category may vary, but the commander and C2 system consider them all.

MISSION

B-11. The mission is the task, together with the purpose, that clearly indicates the action to be taken and the reason therefore (JP 1-02). It is always the first factor commanders consider during decisionmaking. (See FM 5-0.) A thorough understanding of the mission focuses decisionmaking throughout the operations process. Commanders analyze their missions and decisions in terms of the higher commander’s intent, mission, and concept of operations. As commanders allocate tasks and resources to subordinates, they ensure their decisions support the decisive operation and the higher commander’s intent. Commanders and staffs view all the other factors of METT-TC in terms of their impact on mission accomplishment.

B-12. The mission statement defines the who, what, when, where, and why of the operation. A thorough understanding of why the unit is conducting an operation provides the focus for planning. Commanders analyze a mission in terms of the intent of the two higher commanders and their concepts of operations. They also consider the missions of adjacent units to understand their contributions in relation to their own units.

B-13. When assigning missions, commanders ensure all their subordinates’ missions support the decisive operation and the higher commander’s intent. Under mission command, missions to subordinate commanders allow the greatest possible freedom of action. They are constrained only by those control measures that ensure necessary coordination. Ideally, commanders assign each subordinate a mission and an area of operations (AO) without further restrictions. However, some operations (such as a combined arms breaching operation) require greater control and coordination than others (such as an exploitation).

B-14. When analyzing a mission, commanders consider possible subsequent missions, focusing their planning resources on the most probable. They plan to exploit success and aggressively look for opportunities, keeping within the higher commander’s intent.

ENEMY

B-15. The second factor to consider is the enemy—dispositions (including organization, strength, location, and tactical mobility), doctrine, equipment, capabilities, vulnerabilities, and probable courses of action (COAs). (See FM 34-130.)

B-16. The enemy, terrain and weather, and civil consideration contributions to the COP come from many sources, including intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) assets and combat information. Of all RI, intelligence (RI on the enemy and environment) is inherently the most uncertain; therefore the G-2 (S-2) carefully manages collection. To visualize enemy forces, commanders need detailed intelligence, such as, speed of advance, tempo, and strengths and weaknesses. Technology must display RI about enemy forces and significant aspects of the environment within the same digital frame of reference as friendly force information.

B-17. Once a commander initiates an operation, the enemy attempts to determine the friendly concept of operations and defeat it. Enemies react to every friendly move. When the enemy has the initiative, all friendly reactions to enemy actions result in an enemy counteraction. Consequently, commanders never assume their operations will unfold as planned. Enemies always have opportunities to unhinge them. Commanders look for enemy weaknesses and strengths in order to deny options to enemy commanders and keep them reacting to friendly maneuvers. Commanders analyze their forces for weaknesses and vulnerabilities that enemies might exploit, and act to counter them.

TERRAIN AND WEATHER

B-18. Terrain and weather are natural conditions. Commanders have only a limited ability to influence them, although terrain includes manmade structures, such as roads and cities. Human modification of terrain can change the shape of the land or its trafficability. It can also change local weather effects by modifying local wind or water pathways. Commanders consider manmade features and their effects on natural terrain features and climate when they analyze terrain. Commanders also consider the effects of manmade and natural terrain in conjunction with the weather on friendly and enemy operations. The second step of intelligence preparation of the battlefield (IPB) helps commanders with this complex task. (See FM 34-130.) Terrain and weather are relatively neutral; they favor neither side unless one is better prepared to operate in the environment or is more familiar with it (for example, fighting on friendly territory). Commanders analyze terrain and weather for favorable and unfavorable conditions. Enemy commanders do the same.

Terrain

B-19. The terrain has a direct impact on selecting objectives; location, movement, and control of forces; effectiveness of weapons and other systems; and protective measures. Effective use of terrain diminishes the effects of enemy fires, increases the effects of friendly fires, and facilitates surprise. The effects of terrain on operations vary, depending on whether a force is defending or attacking. For example, cross-compartmented terrain favors the defender and hinders the attacker.

B-20. An appreciation of terrain—the ability to analyze its impact on operations—is one of a commander’s most important skills. Whenever possible, commanders perform a personal reconnaissance of the terrain where they plan to operate. IPB is critical to analyzing and understanding the effect of terrain on friendly and enemy COAs. Complete information on terrain is more than data on features, slope and elevation, soil conditions, and vegetation; it also includes their impact on vehicle and human movement rates, maintenance, tempo, trafficability, and maneuverability by various types of forces. Engineer topographic teams produce terrain analysis products to help commanders visualize the effect of terrain on operations. These teams regularly update terrain information to reflect the effects of combat, as well as of nature. Terrain also includes environmental considerations, that is, the spectrum of environmental media, resources, or programs that affect and are affected by operations.

Terrain is normally analyzed using the five military aspects of terrain, expressed in the memory aid, OAKOC:

Observation and fields of fire.
Avenues of approach.
Key and decisive terrain.
Obstacles.
Cover and concealment.

Commanders consider all five aspects when analyzing terrain. They focus on the ones most relevant to the situation.

B-21. Observation and Fields of Fire. Observation is the condition of weather and terrain that permits a force to see the friendly, enemy, and neutral personnel and systems, and key aspects of the environment. Commanders evaluate their observation capabilities for electronic and optical line-of-sight surveillance systems, as well as for unaided visual observation. The highest terrain normally provides the best observation. For this reason, elevated terrain often draws enemy attention. A field of fire is the area that a weapon or group of weapons may cover effectively from a given position (JP 1-02). A unit’s field of fire is directly related to its ability to observe.

B-22. The commander’s analysis of observation and fields of fire considers many factors, including the location and effect of dead space. Dead space is an area within the maximum range of a weapon, radar, or observer, which cannot be covered by fire or observation from a particular position because of intervening obstacles, the nature of the ground, or the characteristics of the trajectory, or the limitations of the pointing capabilities of the weapon (JP 1-02). Commanders identify potential enemy and friendly engagement areas through observation and fields of fire.

B-23. Avenues of Approach. An avenue of approach is an air or ground route of an attacking force of a given size leading to its objective or to key terrain in its path (JP 1-02). An avenue of approach is categorized by the size and type of force that can use it, for example, a dismounted infantry company, an armored division, or an attack-helicopter company. A good avenue of approach allows ease of movement and good cover, concealment, observation, and fields of fire. It avoids obstacles and contributes to protection of the force by providing adequate maneuver space. Avenues of approach normally incorporate key terrain or deny its use to the enemy.

B-24. Corridors (ridge and valley systems) can either form natural avenues of approach (if they run toward an objective), or obstacles to movement (if they run perpendicular to the direction of movement, forming cross compartments). Troops using valleys as avenues of approach must control the adjacent ridges to protect their movement. Close or broken terrain, heavy woods, built-up areas, and abrupt changes in elevation hinder heavy forces but provide cover and concealment for light forces. Although open, rolling terrain provides little concealment and cover to light forces, it is suited for rapid advances by heavy formations.

B-25. Key Terrain and Decisive Terrain. Key terrain is any locality or area, the seizure or retention of which affords a marked advantage to either combatant (JP 1-02). Two factors can make terrain key: how the friendly commander wants to use it, and whether the enemy can use it to defeat a friendly COA. Different COAs may have different key terrain associated with them. The same terrain feature may not be key for all COAs. Terrain adjacent to the AO may be key if its control is necessary to accomplish the mission.

B-26. Decisive terrain is key terrain whose seizure and retention is mandatory for successful mission accomplishment (FM 3-90). Decisive terrain is relatively rare; it is not necessarily present in every situation. Unlike key terrain, decisive terrain is not associated with any COA. By definition, the force cannot accomplish its mission without seizing and retaining decisive terrain. When commanders identify decisive terrain, they specify actions related to it as one or more key tasks in the commander’s intent.

B-27. Obstacles. An obstacle is any obstruction designed or employed to disrupt, fix, turn, or block the movement of an opposing force, and to impose additional losses in personnel, time, and equipment on the opposing force. Obstacles can be natural, manmade, or a combination of both (JP 1-02). Obstacles fall into two categories: existing and reinforcing. The types of existing obstacles are natural, manmade, and military. The types of reinforcing obstacles are tactical and protective. A reinforcing obstacle’s effectiveness varies with the type of force negotiating it, the fires covering it, the nature of the obstacle, and the weather. (See FM 5-102.)

B-28. Cover and Concealment. Cover is protection from the effects of fires. Concealment is protection from observation and surveillance (JP 1-02). Terrain that offers cover and concealment limits fields of fire. Commanders consider cover and concealment to identify potential friendly and enemy locations. They look for possible assembly areas, routes, axes of movement, assault positions, ambushes, and battle positions. They consider both friendly and enemy perspectives.

Weather

B-29. Weather and climate have direct and indirect effects on tactical operations. Climate is a longer-term but more predictable phenomenon than weather. Planners consider climate with longer-range plans, while most tactical planning considers weather. Effective commanders use weather and climate to their advantage.

B-30. For planning purposes, weather is a shorter-term, but less predictable, phenomenon than climate. Weather affects the condition and capabilities of soldiers and weapon systems, including, trafficability, visibility, obstacle emplacement times, and munitions performance. Weather effects are classified as direct and indirect:

Direct effects are those that immediately affect the operations of friendly and enemy forces. They do not favor one side or the other. Their relative impact on each force is a function only of that force’s preparation.

Indirect effects are those on other elements of the environment—terrain and human, military and nonmilitary—that either hamper or help military operations of one or both forces.

B-31. Weather can create opportunities as well as difficulties for each side. For example, bad weather can favor the attacker by concealing a moving force while making construction of fighting positions more difficult for the defender. Simultaneously, bad weather can help the defender by making offensive movement more difficult. Stable weather conditions favor the use of chemical and biological agents. Cold weather slows both soldiers and machines; however, it freezes water and allows movement across normally wet areas that are otherwise difficult to pass.

TROOPS AND SUPPORT AVAILABLE

B-32. The fourth factor of METT-TC is the number, type, capabilities, and condition of available friendly troops and support. These include supplies and support available from joint, multinational, and interagency forces. They also include support from Department of Defense and Department of the Army civilians, and contractors employed by military organizations, such as, the Defense Logistics Agency and the Army Materiel Command.

B-33. Commanders should know the disposition and situation of their forces without having to visit each unit on the ground. They generally maintain information of friendly forces two levels down. They maintain understanding of subordinates’ readiness, including, maintenance, training, strengths and weaknesses, commanders, and logistic status. Thus, commanders visit units to confirm reports or obtain better understanding of the operation’s decisive points or factors. These visits also provide insights into the intangibles that data and reports cannot capture.

B-34. Commanders consider available troops and support when analyzing whether they have enough resources to accomplish a mission. If commanders determine that they do not, they request more from the higher commander. Increasing assets in one area may compensate for a shortage of assets in another. Under mission command, commanders ensure they provide subordinates with the right mix of troops and support to accomplish the missions they assign. Commanders consider tangible and intangible factors when assigning missions. Differences in mobility, protection, firepower, equipment, morale, experience, leadership, and training make some units more suitable for certain missions than others. The personalities of subordinate commanders are also important: A bold commander may be a good choice for a pursuit mission. A methodical commander may be a better choice for a deliberate breaching operation.

TIME AVAILABLE

B-35. Effective commanders and staffs know how much time and space their units need to plan, prepare, and execute operations. This includes the time required to assemble, deploy, move, and converge units to mass the effects of combat power effectively. They also consider time with respect to the enemy: time available is always related to the enemy’s ability to plan, prepare, and execute operations, and react effectively to friendly actions. Time available varies with unit size and mission. It also depends on how much time is usable; for example, for some activities, hours of darkness are useable time, while for others they are not.

B-36. Consideration of time available further includes the time subordinate commanders and units require to plan and prepare their own operations. (See FM 5-0.) Parallel planning can help make the most of time available. Commanders can save more time by using standing operating procedures (SOPs), tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), and habitual relationships. SOPs promote understanding and teamwork among commanders, staffs, and subordinates. TTPs include battle drills and tactical actions that lend themselves to standardized execution, such as refuel-on-the-move site operations. Standard supporting plans, such as rear area security plans, are a form of TTP. Commanders use rehearsals to fit TTPs to the situation. Habitual relationships in task organization also save preparation time. Units and soldiers who work together frequently already know each other’s SOPs and how they use TTPs. They can begin working together more quickly than units not habitually associated.

CIVIL CONSIDERATIONS

B-37. Civil considerations comprise the influence of manmade infrastructure, civilian institutions, and attitudes and activities of the civilian leaders, populations, and organizations within an area of operations on the conduct of military operations. They are a factor in all types of military operations: offense, defense, stability, and support. If the military’s mission is to support civil authorities, civil considerations define the mission.

B-38. Civil considerations generally focus on the immediate impact of civilians on operations in progress; however, they also include larger, long-term diplomatic, informational, and economic issues at higher levels. At the tactical level, they directly relate to key civilian areas, structures, capabilities, organizations, people, and events within the AO. Discounting these can tax the resources of follow-on elements. The world’s increasing urbanization means that the attitudes and activities of the civilian population in the AO often influence the outcome of military operations. Civil considerations of the environment can either help or hinder friendly or enemy forces; the difference lies in which commander has taken time to learn the situation and its possible effects on the operation. These considerations can influence the choice of a COA and the execution of operations.

B-39. Some effects of civil considerations may impede overall force activities; others affect soldiers directly, preventing them from functioning to their full capability. Anticipation and preparation can often overcome these effects, or even turn them to friendly advantage. This holds particularly true for civil considerations, where careful preparation can turn parts of civil populations into advantages for friendly forces and disadvantages for enemy forces.

B-40. An appreciation of civil considerations—the ability to analyze their impact on operations—enhances several aspects of operations: among them, the selection of objectives; location, movement, and control of forces; use of weapons; and force protection measures. Civil considerations comprise six characteristics, expressed in the memory aid ASCOPE:

Areas.
Structures.
Capabilities.
Organizations.
People.
Events.
Areas

B-41. Key civilian areas are localities or aspects of the terrain within an AO that are not normally militarily significant. This characteristic approaches terrain analysis (OAKOC) from a civilian perspective. Commanders analyze key civilian areas in terms of how they affect the missions of their individual forces as well as how military operations affect these areas. Examples of key civilian areas are—

Areas defined by political boundaries, such as, districts within a city or municipalities within a region.
Locations of government centers.
Social, political, religious, or criminal enclaves.
Agricultural and mining regions.
Trade routes.
Possible sites for the temporary settlement of dislocated civilians or other civil functions.
Failure to consider key civilian areas can seriously affect the success of any operation.

Structures

B-42. Existing structures can play many significant roles. Some—such as, bridges, communications towers, power plants, and dams—are traditional high-payoff targets. Others—such as, churches, mosques, national libraries, and hospitals—are cultural sites that international law or other agreements generally protect. Still others are facilities with practical applications—such as, jails, warehouses, television and radio stations, and print plants—that may be useful for military purposes. Some aspects of the civilian infrastructure, such as the location of toxic industrial materials, may influence operations.

B-43. Analyzing a structure involves determining how its location, functions, and capabilities can support the operation. Commanders also consider the consequences of using it. Using a structure for military purposes often competes with civilian requirements for it. Commanders carefully weigh the expected military benefits against costs to the community that will have to be addressed in the future.

Capabilities

B-44. Commanders and staffs analyze capabilities from different levels. They view capabilities in terms of those required to save, sustain, or enhance life, in that priority. Capabilities can refer to the ability of local authorities—those of the host nation, aggressor nation, or some other body—to provide a populace with key functions or services, such as, public administration, public safety, emergency services, and food. Capabilities include those areas in which the populace may need help after combat operations, such as, public works and utilities, public health, economics, and commerce. Capabilities also refer to resources and services that can be contracted to support the military mission, such as, interpreters, laundry services, construction materials, and equipment. The host nation or other nations might provide these resources and services.

Organizations

B-45. Organizations are nonmilitary groups or institutions in the AO. They influence and interact with the populace, the force, and each other. They generally have a hierarchical structure, defined goals, established operations, fixed facilities or meeting places, and a means of financial or logistic support. Some organizations may be indigenous to the area. These may include church groups, fraternal organizations, patriotic or service organizations, labor unions, criminal organizations, and community watch groups. Other organizations may come from outside the AO. Examples of these include multinational corporations, United Nations agencies, US governmental agencies, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), such as the International Red Cross.

B-46. Operations also often require commanders to coordinate with international organizations and NGOs. Commanders remain familiar with organizations operating in their AOs. RI includes information about their activities, capabilities, and limitations. Situational understanding includes understanding how the activities of different organizations may affect military operations and how military operations may affect these organizations’ activities. From this, commanders can determine how organizations and military forces can work together toward common goals when necessary.

B-47. Corps and divisions routinely interact with other US agencies, host-nation governmental agencies, and NGOs. In some circumstances, brigades and battalions also have to interact with these organizations. These groups may not share the commander’s objectives and point of view.

B-48. In almost every case, military forces have more resources than civilian organizations. However, civilian organizations may possess specialized capabilities that they may be willing to share with military forces. Commanders do not command civilian organizations in their AOs. However some operations require achieving unity of effort between them and the force. These situations require commanders to influence the leaders of these organizations through persuasion. They produce constructive results by the force of argument and the example of their actions. (See FM 22-100.)

People

B-49. People is a general term used to describe nonmilitary personnel encountered by military forces. The term includes all civilians within an AO as well as those outside the AO whose actions, opinions, or political influence can affect the mission. Individually or collectively, people can affect a military operation positively, negatively, or neutrally. In stability operations and support operations, Army forces work closely with civilians of all types.

B-50. There can be many different kinds of people living and operating in and around an AO. As with organizations, people may be indigenous or introduced from outside the AO. An analysis of people should identify them by their various capabilities, needs, and intentions. It is useful to separate people into distinct categories. When analyzing people, commanders consider historical, cultural, ethnic, political, economic, and humanitarian factors. They also identify the key communicators and the formal and informal processes used to influence people.

Events

B-51. Events are routine, cyclical, planned, or spontaneous activities that significantly affect organizations, people, and military operations. Examples include national and religious holidays, agricultural crop/livestock and market cycles, elections, civil disturbances, and celebrations. Other events are disasters from natural, manmade, or technological sources. These create civil hardship and require emergency responses. Examples of events precipitated by military forces include combat operations, deployments, redeployments, and paydays. Once significant events are determined, it is important to template the events and to analyze them for their political, economic, psychological, environmental, and legal implications.

B-52. Technological innovation, external social influences, and natural and manmade disasters (such as, hurricanes, environmental damage, and war) affect the attitudes and activities of governments and civilian populations. These changes cause stress in the civilian population and its leaders. The civilian population may or may not successfully incorporate these changes within its existing cultural value system. Addressing the problems posed by change requires considerable time and resources. The impatience of key leaders and groups, legal restrictions, and limits on resources can make resolution difficult. However, when their resolution is necessary to accomplish the mission, commanders become concerned with them.

B-53. The existence of an independent press guarantees that US military activities that do not meet America’s military standards for dealing with noncombatants will be reported in US, host-nation, and international public forums. Commanders consider the effects of their decisions and their forces’ actions on public opinion. The activities of a force—or individual members of a force—can have far-reaching effects on the legitimacy of all military operations—offense, defense, stability, or support. Commanders ensure their soldiers understand that a tactically successful operation can also be operationally or strategically counterproductive because of the way in which they execute it or how the people perceive its execution.

B-54. Commanders have legal and moral responsibilities to refugees and noncombatants in their AOs. These responsibilities may include providing humanitarian assistance. A commander’s moral responsibility to protect noncombatants influences planning and preparing for operations. Commanders assess the chance that their actions may result in dislocated civilians and consider their legal obligation to respect and protect them when choosing a COA and executing an operation.

What?

You thought just because you didn't have armor, air, artillery, a logistics train half a planet long, and the DoD's credit card, you wouldn't have to learn how to plan an operation?

More to follow......