tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312196002008-05-14T14:33:55.244-04:00Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11470923506500376318noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31219600.post-7481227513913688312008-04-04T15:54:00.001-04:002008-04-04T15:54:56.865-04:00

I had a couple questions on this section. Tom wrote (pg 77)... “Without the ability to clearly represent the exact and true situation, to include all that is known and what things are unknown.” I'd love a concrete example of this thinking because I'm thinking if it’s unknown how can you know…. How do you plan for unknowns? what am I missing here? And Tom wrote.. “ A person who threatens has a

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11470923506500376318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31219600.post-7804805776862533882008-02-24T17:53:00.002-05:002008-02-24T18:00:10.098-05:00

So--let's get the party started

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11470923506500376318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31219600.post-39204160751700160562008-02-21T18:52:00.000-05:002008-02-21T18:53:20.114-05:00

janet w has left a new comment on your post "Psyop": Them's Fightin' Words! When I read John McCain's oft-repeated line, that the transcendent challenge of the 21st century is radical Islamic extremists" I hardly know where to start parsing the sentence. Words do matter and saying "transcendent", "challenge", "Islamic" inflames the situation, imo, and leads not to solutions but to the

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11470923506500376318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31219600.post-13451414653536015482008-02-21T18:51:00.000-05:002008-02-21T18:52:15.225-05:00

Laura has left a new comment on your post "Psyop": Section 3 is my favorite so far even though I am only a short way through it. I totally agree with Tom that for a nation to succeed it "will not avoid risk; it will avoid decline." When I think of the word "decline" I immediately think "and fall". The decline and fall of the Roman Empire as an example. How can we fight decline? Toms says "We

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11470923506500376318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31219600.post-17645992116531278372008-02-21T18:50:00.001-05:002008-02-21T18:50:27.507-05:00

Beginning on pg 21 I have serious questions. Tom says "to question the government could be construed to be aiding and abetting the enemy." I heartily disagree. Most glaringly obvious is that Tom has published this book and yet remains free to move about the country and work with dangerous materials. All of us are discussing this book and I know I have yet to have a knock at the door or anyone

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11470923506500376318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31219600.post-58291560044995597542008-02-21T18:11:00.002-05:002008-02-21T18:45:03.513-05:00

...and sorry for my absence in it. A few things- In the conversation about Information Warfare--Information Warfare is largely defensive, it is the protecting of your information while trying to exploit the information systems of the enemy. Like all warfare areas, there is an inherent overlap with other warfare areas. So the information warfare folks would be involved in finding weak spots or

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11470923506500376318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31219600.post-58541147914295463802008-01-16T12:03:00.000-05:002008-01-16T12:07:22.494-05:00

PSYOPS or Psychological Operations: Planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals. The purpose of psychological operations is to induce or reinforce foreign attitudes and behavior favorable to the

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11470923506500376318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31219600.post-13620737235370114252008-01-16T10:43:00.000-05:002008-01-16T11:55:07.983-05:00

Okay, fabulous discussion. My initial intent and effort here was to allow the conversation to run its course and then comment. That might have been a bit too much to try and bite off but we'll give it a go. So lets table the word strategic for a moment and focus on "imperative". A caveat first though, and that is that we are talking about the nation as defined by the Constitution. That is

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11470923506500376318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31219600.post-87807831809319989722008-01-10T09:06:00.000-05:002008-01-10T09:10:06.245-05:00

From Lisa A: "It's a good thing we are reading this slowly. I got as far as page two and stopped at strategic imperative.. anyone else? I certainly can define the words individually, strategy ~ a plan, and imperative~ absolutely necessay. I've read For The Courage before and still I stopped and thought before I continue, I need to grasp what I think are some strategic imperatives in the Umited

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11470923506500376318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31219600.post-9713040557596980952008-01-07T13:47:00.000-05:002008-01-07T13:48:35.518-05:00

Tom, It's the New Year, an election year, and combating terrorism is a relevant issue. It has been a major focus of politicians, of citizens of our country, and the world since 9/11. A few of us said we wanted to read or reread FOR THE COURAGE OF THE FOUNDERS this year, and we had the brilliant idea to do it as a small group. I believe paramount to all of us, is expanding our understanding of

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11470923506500376318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31219600.post-11097858048345981512007-09-11T09:19:00.000-04:002007-11-04T13:15:22.308-05:00

Tom you wrote The fundamental argument of this book is that since terrorists are inconsequential in real terms and operationally inept, they should not receive the level of attention or funding that they currently enjoy. So bin Laden (I know the audio has been verified not sure about the video part) released his own video tape and his news coverage surpasses that of some of the most powerful

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11470923506500376318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31219600.post-13647506552779191252007-08-04T10:47:00.000-04:002007-08-04T11:13:29.746-04:00

Laura asks If the terrorists cannot win, then can you explain the environment and the terms of their success? Or is their success merely psychological, "fear and coercion"? Or is there a specific reaction they hope to produce through their fear and coersion? Your example of the Doolittle Raid showed the use of Psychological methods as a catalyst for a specific reaction. Is there a specific

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11470923506500376318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31219600.post-75238290905044345372007-08-04T10:30:00.000-04:002007-08-04T10:45:33.670-04:00

PSA asks-As long as each of the cells is successful in it's mission why does this lack of central command hurt them? and then answers precisely--Is it because there is no one with the 'big picture' guiding them and therefore the potential exists for the cells to actually work in opposition with each other? It is not so much that they work in opposition of each other as they can't gain synergy--

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11470923506500376318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31219600.post-20034205055174804682007-07-31T16:07:00.000-04:002007-07-31T16:21:26.548-04:00

Some things have changed! From LG: "Also, you say that Al Qaeda is defunct and that it committed suicide. As someone who was in London the day before the July 7th attacks and has recently watched the coverage of the attempted attack in Glasgow, it feels like there is some life in them yet. Finally, do you feel that the issues discussed in your manuscript are applicable to other countries or do

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11470923506500376318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31219600.post-60597218078711255252007-07-29T11:19:00.000-04:002007-07-29T11:31:49.907-04:00

From JW: "In colloquial terms, everytime we're attacked, we make money. Even writing that seems too harsh a statement but it's true. Maybe because we don't like to think of ourselves as profiting from the misery of others? Is that a sign of our strength? That kind of equivocation?" This is not so much a sign of strength as it is a sign of resilience. But the specific point is that there is a

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11470923506500376318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31219600.post-87846112878629810542007-07-22T07:38:00.000-04:002007-07-22T08:05:29.881-04:00

In "Combating Terrorism" I discuss terrorism as a paradox---that paradox is woven throughout the different layers and activities involved in both terror campaigns and fighting terror campaigns So, to Lisa's question--how does this “The terrorist is, at a very basic level, an unconventional warrior. For the unconventional warrior, security is simply a planning consideration.” mesh with your

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11470923506500376318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31219600.post-65970465931549518002007-07-15T08:55:00.000-04:002007-07-18T11:58:23.182-04:00

I have decided to post a manuscript which I completed in 2003. It is titled "For The Courage of The Founders" and intends to be a discussion on the strategic shortfalls of the then (2003) current Global War On Terror (GWOT). I was unable to get it published, with the reasons running from "too controversial" to "too confrontational". However, in the past four years, it seems that two things have

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11470923506500376318noreply@blogger.com