Tactics of the Crescent Moon: Militant Muslim Combat Methods | H. John Poole

Tactics of the Crescent Moon: Militant Muslim Combat Methods | H. John Poole | The Tools to Prepare the Next Generation for the New Wars

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Tactics of the Cre...

	Tactics of the Crescent Moon: Militant Muslim Combat Methods H. John Poole Posterity Press, 2004 - 360 pages average customer review:based on 27 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

This book could turn the tide in the war on terror

This book is truly remarkable. In Tactics of the Crescent Moon, John Poole provides an incredibly insightful analysis of the Middle Eastern problem and our role in trying to resolve it. He explains extremely complicated issues with remarkable clarity, examining them from historical, political, cultural, military and moral perspectives. Despite the immense scope of the book, his key insights never get lost in the complexity of his subject matter. At the most fundamental level, John Poole provides detailed tactical descriptions of exactly how our Middle Eastern adversaries fight. To illuminate the big picture, he clearly shows how these tactical examples relate to the larger cultural and political issues. He goes on to propose solutions that can help American privates survive, help commanders make better decisions, help generals develop better strategies and even help politicians make better military policies. Most importantly, the book's profound morality offers insight on how to win what might be the most important battle of all, the battle for the moral high ground. We will not win this war on terrorism if we lose touch, even for a moment, with the great and noble values that make us who we are. John Poole reminds us that when Americans go to war we bring with us our honor, our compassion, our love of freedom, and our belief in the equality of all people. Our morality is our ultimate weapon.

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The Tools to Prepare the Next Generation for the New Wars

"Pentagon officials insist the anti-Western fighters have not won a single battle against U.S. forces. But those in the field say the measure of winning and losing is more psychological than physical, and here the insurgency has gained the upper hand. Pentagon leaders have maintained insurgents number no more than 5,000, but privately some military officials say the resistance can draw upon more than 20,000 fighters. With superior numbers and technology, U.S. troops could prevail in almost any conventional battle, officers say. But they run the risk of losing against the insurgency in the long run because the war ultimately is not about killing targets. History shows it's about winning the popular support, many officers say."

Sounds familar? Unfortunately the citation above, from Elaine Grossman's article "Officers In Iraq: War Tactics Offer Little Prospect Of Success" is from the war in Iraq, published in September 2004.

Why Is this happening again? Before I answer, this, I also ask, "where are the real leaders today? Where are the leaders that in the past would have had the moral courage to make corrections, stand up to the powers to be, and save soldiers lives"

If we do ever adapt the books of John Poole, such as the Tactics of the Crescent Moon, which is one of the most innovative and practical books on military tactics, it is because we found leaders at all levels of our Army and Marine Corps willing to adapt and use them. They would do this against the antiquated programs of instruction that we teach at most ROTC programs, and Army and Marine Corps schools.

Most of the services today are educated and train in a culture that is immersed in the 2nd Generation of War (refer to www.-d-n-i.net for more details). With the exception of U.S. Special Forces, the leaders are developed, accessed, and promoted in a culture that is out of touch with the growing evolution of war. This is an evolution that to the U.S. is a Revolution of Ideas--thus all the buzz words you hear today by talking heads on evening news programs--but we have not reacted with substance to the changes this so-called Revolution brought to the battlefield and the global community.

John Poole is one of the few with the moral courage, experience and intelligence to try to make the change through writing. "The pen is mightier than the sword," if only those who need this book would read it, believe in it, and then implement its recommendations, despite it going against what their superiors are telling them to do.

I love John's books so much that the first, The Last Hundred Yards, was the best small unit tactics manual published; so I made it my text book for my MS III (junior) cadets at Duke and Georgetown University Army ROTC programs. Fortunately for my cadets and I, John keeps turning out more books that continue the cadets' evolution toward true professionalism, and hopefully, the ability to impact change generations from now on the U.S. Army.

Now, just in time for preparing my cadets to lead in Iraq and Afganistan, John is offering his take on how Islamic non-state forces fight. Tactics of the Crescent Moon: Militant Muslim Combat Methods is going to be my text book for the MS II (sophomore) year. I was so impressed with it, that I am rewriting my entire syllabus to revolve around this book and William S. Lind's Maneuver Warfare Handbook.

My actions, and those of my department, while bold and necessary, unfortunately run counter to the U.S. Army Cadet Command prescribed curriculum that centers on process, task-condition and standard (2nd Generation Warfare) and developing junior officers who are supposed to react, play safe, and not in how to think in order to be decisive.

If we had officer accession programs that was evolutionary with the pace of war, they could create adaptive officers with intuition as the foundation to the future. These officers would innovate and execute "better tactics," which these leaders would understand,

"U.S. forces could take fewer casualties at close range without alienating the local population and without sacrificing their long-range capabilities. More powerful than firepower in this new kind of war will be the preservation of infrastructure. For it is the lack of social services that gives the foe his recruiting base. In the 21st century - as it was at the end of World War II - food, water, clinics and jobs will do infinitely more to secure the ultimate victory than bombs. Better small-unit technique costs nothing. It requires only a slower operational pace and the authority to experiment at the company or school level."

Instead of using the U.S. method for analysis of war, which is the quanatative method that relies on the tangibles due to a lack of trust in classical thinking about war, John Poole uses a thorough examination of history. He uses lessons from the Iran-Iraq war and Israel's expulsion from southern Lebanon. John combines this with another important factor, know thy enemy. He studies each of the main Islamic Fourth Generation forces the U.S. may find itself facing. He discusses the Afghan resistance to the U.S., as well as that to the Soviet Army

John Poole then examines the Iraqi opposition, and in Part Three of Tactics of the Crescent Moon, he offers how U.S. forces should change their tactics. As in his other books, Poole stresses small-unit tactics and techniques, but the foundation is solid leadership.

Now, many reading this, especially defenders of the faith, will say the U.S. has good tactics and techniques. But John Poole bases his recommendations on trust and professionalism. He empowers sergeants: individuals, squad and team leaders, with the ability to do things that today's officers would not do-trust their subordinates with autonomy.

Because we do not do this, we limit our courses of action to fire power and strong arm tactics. Sadly, we do have the people that would welcome this trust and would deliver results. But instead, we continue to fight as we have for a century based on assumptions that drive a culture that is out of date.

John talks about moral disadvantages of the massive use of American firepower. With John Poole's methods, the U.S. could create good small units - true light infantry. These units could win without the vast collateral damage and civilian casualties that work against us. They would win by constant adaptation, by evolving faster than the enemy. They would win by using their mental power.

My cadets, and returning alumni as officers, cherish the thought that they would one day be allowed high levels of small unit autonomy. They have learned that better peacetime training, training would permit experimentation and adaptation, is the recipe to success. Instead they are telling me that everyone is forced into cookie-cutter sameness.

My cadets want to learn, and this makes the Tactics of the Crescent Moon an invaluable resource. The question is whether the U.S. Army can truly Transform, not by buying new technology, or filling thick doctrine manuals with the right buzz words but no substance. If the Army would focus at the beginning at the way it educates its cadets on how to think, to learn and adapt. Then the Army would well be on its way to Transforming itself into a 3rd Generation force that could deal with 4th Generation foes.

We have to do everything we can to prepare our young officers. New officers will have to bear the burden of a vast, centralized, bureaucratic command structure that has little interest in adaptation. It will be up to them that tries to change it, despite threats to their careers. They will up against layers of officers who know all too well how to grab more bucks for irrelevant high-tech weapons, and sit in huge headquarters. These headquarters resemble huge circuses that constantly demand information to justify their existance, but in turn distract units from their purpose, stay abreat and preparing for the evolutions in war.

Hopefully, enough young people get hold of and read John Poole's books in order to start changing the Army and the nation so we have a chance to survive the combative future of the globe.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6

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