Targeting Gaddafi

Like most things in the military, planning is structured. The planning process is known the MAP – the Military Appreciation Process. It is a systematic and structured process that aims to ensure that all elements have been considered and that a plan meets the test of being feasible, acceptable, suitable and distinguishable enough from other plans to warrant consideration on its own. One of the first steps is to create a Centre of Gravity Construct. This allows the planner to shape a plan to target an opponent's weaknesses. General H. Norman "Stormin'" Norman wrote extensively about it in his autobiography. The Centre of Gravity has a long-winded doctrinal definition, but essentially it is the "thing" that, if you kick it out, will cause your opponent to topple. I have had a quick bash at creating a CoG construct for the first phase of any operation to topple Gaddafi. If the war in Iraq taught us anything, it is that subsequent planning must be focussed on winning the peace as comprehensively as winning the war. This idea, which I bashed out on a slow Saturday night over a couple of beers, is not aimed at a "Phase 2" plan, but at removing a dictator to facilitate a transition into something else. I am not a General, or a politician, or even a planner on a staff HQ. It is just the ousting of Gaddafi according to Sharpe.

Centre of Gravity Gaddafi's ability to crush dissent and control the population.
Critical Capabilities
Combat Power	Traditional Loyalties	Finance	Propaganda
Critical Requirements
Air Power Land Forces Weapons/ Consumable munitions Moral authority to employ force	Tribal supporters Chain of Command Reputation Ability to portray the opposition as a threat to traditional values	Oil revenue Offshore funds International funding	Control of domestic media Information operations/ dissemination of information Religious leaders
Critical Vulnerabilities
NATO/UN forces have considerable capability overmatch to his Air Force, which is vulnerable both to destruction on the ground and interdiction in the air. Land Forces can be functionally dislocated from the rebel elements by forcing engagement with a coalition land force – not necessarily of sufficient mass to conquer Libya, but sufficient to draw Gaddafi's land forces away from the popular revolt. Weapons/Consumable munitions can be targeted through embargoes as well as direct strikes against munitions storage facilities. Moral authority to employ force can be targeted through Information Operations – see column 4.	Military and political embarrassment of Gaddafi will erode the loyalty of his tribal supporters. Gaddafi's Chain of Command can be targeted by isolating his command structure through targeted destruction of his communications. His reputation as the tribal "strong man" is vulnerable to attack both physically through decisive military defeats, and politically by international refusal to acknowledge his legitimacy. His ability to portray the opposition as a threat to traditional values can be undermined by tying him to international terrorism – see column 4.	Isolation of Gaddafi's finances has already begun, through the quarantining of offshore funds etc. This will need to be expanded and targeted to deny him funds to prosecute his continued defiance.	Control of domestic media can be targeted both physically and through the EM spectrum. Destruction of broadcast facilities would constitute a short-term solution, but would deny friendly elements the ability to use those in the future. Denial through the disruption of bandwidth is a better long-term solution. His ability to influence the Information Operations battle can be targeted through a comprehensive counter-IO plan, using traditional media as well as social media to tie Gaddafi to the Lockerbie bombing and support for various terrorist agencies etc to undermine his recurrent theme of branding the protesters as terrorists. In addition, a positive campaign to tie the protesters to a democratic future for Libya will undermine his supporters and deny him legitimacy. Religious leaders can be targeted by isolating the political struggle from religious orthodoxy. IO campaigns need to differentiate between political and religious identity.

Three genuine peace activists murdered

No, I'm not referring to the recent tragic news of the three Australian SF soldiers recently killed in a helicopter accident. Accidents will happen when machines and men are pushed to their limits in an environment of threat, and while their deaths are a tragedy, it is hardly worthy of the fury of speculation as to the future of Australia's commitment to the war in Afghanistan. If anything, it is slightly unbecoming for the deaths of three men whose commitment to the objectives of this war can hardly be questioned to be used as a catalyst for discussion of the abandonment of those same objectives. Their sacrifice ought to be honoured and serve as a reminder of the deadly seriousness of the endeavour and to steel the resolve of our leaders to see that their sacrifice was not in vain.

The three genuine peace activists I refer to in the title are the three UN Peacekeepers killed in a random action in the western region of Darfur on Monday. The peacekeepers were providing protection to civilian engineers when they were attacked. This latest attack takes the toll of UN Peacekeepers killed in Darfur to 27 since the UN took over the operation from the African Union in 2007.

In contrast to the agent provocateurs who committed suicide by IDF Commando on the Mediterranean several weeks ago, these genuine peace activists will go unmourned by the world media because they were killed by Islamic bandits and not teh evil Juice.

Best photo ever

This is so very apt. Every time my peers and I would discuss day to day events while working for the UN in Africa, words like UN-efficient, UN-workable, UN-realistic, and UN responsive would be common.

This photo just adds that motivational .ppt slant to a frequent meme.

Enjoy.

(Disclaimer: I am aware that the antonym of efficient is inefficient. Most of my peers were working in English as a second language, so I forgave them their minor lapses.)

Obama goes to Africa

There has been some talk of Obama’s trip to Africa. I was in Africa when he was inaugurated, and the general feeling was that all their Christmases had come at once. It was about that time that we were having some difficulty with both power and running water.

Sometimes the water would cut out because the ablutions used by the African troops were routinely abused and the broken plumbing would leak all the water out of the tank that supplied our part of the compound. The other time we would lose running water was when we would lose power. When the power went out, so did the pump for the water, so that was a two-for. Now, I realise that not showering for a few days is hardly deserving of a VC out of petty cash, but it was a pain in the proverbial because we were entirely self-sufficient for rationing. Cooking our own food meant that we was some small measure of quality control for what went into our mouths, at least from the point that the ingredients came into our possession. It also meant the usual domestic by-product of meal production – dishes. After a while with no water, we would start to run out of clean dishes to cook and eat with.

After nearly a week of very intermittent water supply, one of the German police I lived with had had enough. He marched over to the camp manager’s office to give him a good old Teutonic performance counselling session. Having delivered his opinion of the situation and the competence of those who were responsible for its remedy, the local just smiled and said “Everything will be OK now, Obama is President and he will fix everything.”