Tactics of War, Monday, 6 - 8 PM

[harringtongreen.livejournal.com]

Honor is standing at the front of the room, arms folded across her chest. She is once again clad in her dress uniform tunic, though she has, in compliance with school policy, left the sword at home. Nimitz is perched on her shoulder, claws dug in just below her shoulder blade, and just above the ribbons on the left side of her tunic. From the gleam in his eyes, it is apparent he is highly amused to be here.

Good evening, and welcome to another action-packed session of tactics of war...Well, okay, maybe action-packed isn't the word, but thank you for coming, all the same. I was very pleased you could make it to dinner on Monday, and I was also pleased with the discussions over the course of the evening. I'll let you know now that there will likely be one further dinner during the term, so be prepared.

On the table, you'll find the class syllabus. You are all capable of reading, so I'm not going to bore you by going into the details. Take a few moments to review it, and I'll take any questions. Once those are cleared up, we'll jump right into the lecture.

She pauses, rubbing the tip of her nose.

...and I'll apologize now for the lecture. I began researching, and I'm afraid it's a bit of a monster. I hope you'll at least find it interesting. So...any questions on the syllabus?

There is another pause as she waits for the class to review the document, and offer up any questions. Once those are settled, she plunges into the lecture.

Okay, today we're looking at the tactical use of intelligence. Intelligence, simply put, is information. Taken in context, however, it becomes something more. When we refer to intelligence in the security arena, we find that intelligence refers also to the activities and organizations used to collect that information. The simple data is then compiled, analyzed, and disseminated. In this process, it becomes a type of weapon.

There are three major collection methods: human intelligence (HUMINT), technical intelligence (TECHINT), and what is referred to as "open source."

Moving toward the board, she scrawls the acronyms on the board as she speaks, hoping they are legible.

HUMINT is pretty much as it sounds – a human source – sometimes one of ours, sometimes one of theirs, willing and actively providing information. This type of intel is usually played very close to the vest, as human sources are hard to come by.

TECHINT, on the other hand, can be broken down even further, into several different categories:

IMINT - image intelligence - is also as it sounds, usually involving satellite imagery. Trained analysts can take these images – pictures or even thermal scans – and develop a great deal of information: placement of armaments, troops, possible research locations.

SIGINT - signals intelligence - usually refers to communications signals such as intercepted screens – er, phone calls or computer transmissions.

TELINT - telemetry intelligence - listens to the signals between a test vehicle -- say a missile -- and the receiving ground station. TELINT is usually collected when an adversary takes a new toy out for a trial run. This is one way we might learn about our adversaries’ weapons capability... in addition to any materials intelligence we might obtain in other ways.

ELINT - electronics intelligence - where we listen in on different electronic signals emanating from foreign military equipment.

MASINT – really another type of SIGINT – refers to measurements and signatures intelligence, or MASINT. MASINT might include seismic readings taken during a nuclear detonation.

And open source really is just like it sounds. It's collected from sources such as newspapers, television, and diplomatic connections within the community.

Moving back toward the front of the desk, she pauses long enough to scratch Nimitz's ears, then resumes her stance, leaning against the edge of the desk.

In open societies, there are often questions as to whether or not we should continue to collect intelligence during times of relative piece, or to collect intelligence even on our allies. As Machiavelli says in chapter 14 of The Prince, however: "A wise prince ought... never in peaceful times stand idle, but increase his resources with industry in such a way that they may be available to him in adversity, so that if fortune changes it may find him prepared to resist her blows."

So why is intelligence important? And why should we collect it?

She moves to take a seat among the students. Nimitz, who, by this time has taken to sprawling across the desk, follows her with his eyes, eventually satisfied she's not going far. Honor crosses her legs, relaxing into the chair a bit, then sits back. She prompts the class to discuss. Once she feels the topic has been dissected to its sum parts, she moves on to the next point.

Well, as I said before, intelligence eventually becomes a sort of weapon. It can be used tactically to shape battle plans, or it can even be used to shape grand strategy. But the use of intelligence comes at a cost.

In World War II, with the assistance of Polish cryptologists, British Intelligence broke several complex German codes. Known commonly as "Enigma," the information obtained from these ciphers was known as "ULTRA." ULTRA was used to protect supply lines in the oceans, as well as troops on the ground. It is even said that ULTRA was responsible for warning Prime Minister Churchill regarding the German attempt to land on British soil (Operation Sea Lion).

Were any operations to be formed as a result of ULTRA, it was necessary for military planners to "cover their tracks." Many times, the British dispatched reconnaissance flights, to be sure they were seen by the Germans, and provide a simpler explanation for a coming attack. Rumor even circulated that Prime Minister Churchill, in his drive to protect ULTRA, allowed the town of Coventry to be bombarded by Luftwaffe forces. This rumor has been discredited over time, but it still carries with it the importance of protecting a source as important as ULTRA. It was, after all, German habit and sloppiness on the part of the Enigma transmitters that provided the British with the ability to read the code as easily as they did. (And here, easy is such a relative term...) Once the German Navy added an extra wheel to their machine, increasing the possible permutations and computations even further, it took months for the cryptanalysts to break it. Had the Germans been the least bit suspicious their codes had been broken, changing cipher wheels or procedures on a regular basis would have made the Allied analysts’ jobs close to impossible...and cost the war effort dearly.

It should also be noted, more as an aside than anything else, that the existence of ULTRA really didn't become public knowledge until the second --

Honor pauses, as though she were about to say something else, then continues:

-- until the mid-1970s, almost thirty years after the war ended.

There are limits, however, to the advantage that intelligence can afford us. First and foremost, intelligence products are produced by normal – or not-so-normal, as the case may be – human beings. As humans, they are capable of mistakes, and intelligence is no exception; incorrect conclusions can and will be drawn.

The second caveat is that intelligence cannot tell us everything we need to know. Even if the analysis is perfect, there are always gaps it can’t cover: Signals intercepts don’t give us the information we need to discern what the adversary is thinking; HUMINT may provide that information, but isn’t always available, nor is it always reliable; and MASINT is all well and good, but unless you know how and when your adversary would deploy those weapons, you can’t always come up with a constructive counterstrategy. In short, you sometimes simply have to go out there and do...and bring back your own intelligence.

Untangling her self, she rises and returns to her position at the front of the room.


And now... your homework. Much like Churchill and Coventry, it has been a subject of much debate whether or not President F. D. Roosevelt obtained prior knowledge of the Japanese plans for Pearl Harbor. I want you to put yourself in either Sir Winston's or President Roosevelt's shoes. What might you have done in the same situation? I would like one page, to be handwaved turned in next class. I'll award bonus points to the individuals who can point out the possible repercussions.


Readings for the next class include: Pages 287 to 317 from Sea Power, and Chapter 3 in The Price of Admiralty. Be prepared to discuss!

[Please wait for OCD threads! OCD threads up. Also, readings for next week will be posted once my PC has returned from the grave. ::wibble::

Info taken from Silent Warfare by Shulsky and Schmitt, Intelligence in War by Keegan, and Code Breakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park by F. H. Hinsley and Alan Stripp.]

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[janet_fraiser]

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Questions about the Syllabus

[harringtongreen.livejournal.com]

Need any clarifications?

Intelligence

[harringtongreen.livejournal.com]

Why is intelligence important? Why should we collect it?

Re: Intelligence

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

Anakin had taken insanely detailed notes as the professor had been lecturing.

"Intelligence is absolutely crucial," Anakin said. "The Jedi, where I come from, have been keeping records of our galaxy for more than 25 millennia. Going into a situation unprepared or with faulty data can be disasterous." He frowned. "As has been shown many, many times in our archives."

Re: Intelligence

[can_be_more]

"Without any intelligence, all you're doing it walking into a situation blind," Aeryn says. "It's the easiest way to get your entire team killed."

Re: Intelligence

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

'It can mean the life or death of a mission, or, like Aeryn said, of the people involved in the mission." Sam spoke animatedly, complete with hand gestures, "and if you're not properly outfitted for the environment, you've just doomed yourselves to failure--people are suddenly more worried about survival than they are about completing their objectives. Without that concentration and focus, there's no way that a successful mission will be achieved."

Which, okay, not strictly true, but not every team was going to be SG-1.

Re: Intelligence

[cyclopeanmerc.livejournal.com]

"As the old saying goes," Pip said, "Knowledge is power. Walking into a situation blind is akin to suicide, and I can speak from personal experience that walking into a situation half-blind is dangerous enough as it is. With the proper intelligence, you can finish a fight before it even starts, stopping an attack before it begins, bypassing troops meant to stop yours, or catching the enemy in an undefendable ambush, depending on your goals. Without the right intelligence, the enemy can blindside you with capabillities you didn't even know they had." He lifted his hat slightly as he scratched the back of his head. "What was it Sun Tzu said... one of the mercenaries used to read it with me when I was thirteen...

So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle. ?"

Re: Intelligence

[psycho-barbie.livejournal.com]

Callisto didn't exactly snicker, but there was somethign of an odd grin on her face. "Well, if you don't know about the manticore that lives in the pass you're taking your army through, or the three new companies your enemy recruited the week before, your campaign can come to an unfortunate end."

Re: Intelligence

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Aside from the tactical and strategic advantages of knowing where to put your forces," Parker said slowly, thinking aloud, "it can also help you avoid conflict, where there may be no reason to take action. Conservation of your resources for later battles, and wars, is what allows a country or force to keep fighting later on."

"If Machiavelli is right, then all war should be avoided except in those cases where it can be won. And intelligence can help you evaluate that."

Re: Intelligence

[janet_fraiser]

"I know that I wouldn't want to go into a situation blind," said Janet, who had been taking notes during the lecture. "You can't know everything before you go in, but if you don't know everything you possibly can, the surprises in store in hostile territory tend to be unpleasant rather than positive."

Re: Intelligence

[threeweapons.livejournal.com]

"Without intelligence we might as well take a cloth, wrap it around our eyes, and then go into any kind of situation. Before anyone can make any descision they have to at least know what the question is and what the possible answers can be. In a battle situation, you need to know where your enemy is located, how many troops you have, what natural recources are nearby, what can you use as cover, what can they use as cover, and so on."

General Questions/Discussion

[harringtongreen.livejournal.com]

Any general questions or discussion? Questions remaining from last week?

Talk Amongst Yourselves

[harringtongreen.livejournal.com]

...but do so at your peril.

After Class

[harringtongreen.livejournal.com]

Honor pauses after class to answer questions while she collects her things.

Re: After Class

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

Anakin stopped by her desk to drop off his three-page paper about force, will and power. It quoted extensively from Jedi Masters, especially an Obi-Wan Kenobi, but the conclusions he was drawing were entirely his own.

"Without both the will to achieve a goal and the force, either through manpower, weapons, intelligence and superior guile or supernatural abilities, to implement, you will never have power. But you need to be mindful of those in power--because everyone in power fears to lose it."

That last thought he had gotten from Chancellor Palpatine, a good friend of his.

OOC

[harringtongreen.livejournal.com]

...because it never fails. ;)

Re: OOC

[cyclopeanmerc.livejournal.com]

OMG quit talking about Operation Sea Lion! You're making my character nervous... or would if it were the future.

He helps fight off Operation Sea Lion II. Which actually works.