Friday, 1 December 2006

 Can Western civilization survive Fourth Generation warfare and the overall decline of the modern nation state? Moreover, can we “win” the “war on terror”? With the conflicts in Iraq and Lebanon, we see that warfare is no longer just between nation states. In Iraq, there is already open “civil war”, but we see no rebel flags flying, armies marching in uniforms or revolutionary would-be governments competing for the loyalty of the people. On the other hand, turf boundaries are clear to Iraqis, whose loyalties are to tribes, clans, sects, and militias rather than to traditional state entities. As a matter of fact, there is not much traditional government in Iraq at all. The puppet regime can barely hold its own outside the heavily fortified Green Zone. Puppet police stations and army bases are attacked with regularity. In the Green Zone, security is provided by American troops, not Iraqis.

In spite of all that, insurgents have hit several restaurants and clubs near the edge of the zone, and coalition bases are hit from time to time by accurate mortar and rocket fire. Outside Baghdad, there are varying degrees of violence, but the city itself is not safe at all. Kurdistan is an exception, with strong local nationalist armed forces, yet another nation that is not a state. Baghdad, before the war a city roughly the size of Los Angeles, now resembles something out of a horror/science fiction movie.

Apparently, some puppet cabinet ministers never or rarely visit their offices, and some parliamentary delegates don’t feel safe enough to attend the sessions. Iraqis with the money and contacts to relocate themselves and/or their families have done so. Also not covered in the Western media is the fact that hundreds of physicians, scientists, technocrats and scholars have been brutally murdered. It is hard to see why an Iraqi faction would do that, and some accuse Israeli agents as the actual assassins. While not quite as bad as in Iraq, Lebanon barely has a functioning government or army.

Hezbollah, a true Fourth Generation force, has the open loyalty of many throughout the small nation, performing governmental tasks more effectively than the state authorities. Hezbollah greatly grew in stature and importance by unexpectedly inflicting heavy physical and psychological damages on the highly vaunted Israeli Defense Force. Fourth generation warfare has come to the forefront, but apparently beyond the comprehension of the Powers That Be (PTB), and almost nothing appears on their carefully controlled and contrived news media.

It seems that to admit that an effective enemy actually exists is not an option at this time. Could we sooner or later have to sit down and deal with “terrorists”? That’s what eventually happened in Northern Ireland. It’s hard to find peace if all parties are not addressed and included.

But, what is happening in the Middle East and other parts of the world that so troubles and vexes the PTB? What is this phenomenon called Fourth Generation Warfare? The Treaty of Westphalia brought an end to the Thirty Years War in 1648, and the First Generation of modern warfare began. Prior to that, many different entities fought wars: regional rulers, warlords, cities, powerful tribes, clans, families, mercantile companies, religions, and others. This is happening again today.

Non-state entities have key roles in ideological and armed struggles the world over. First Generation Warfare was much more organized and structured than ever before. The combat of the 1700s saw state military forces, arrayed in neat and colorful uniforms with musical accompaniment, marching in an orderly fashion, lining up across the battlefield, then taking turns firing at one another with inaccurate muskets and short-range artillery. After all of this was done, they charged with bayonets.

Here were all the familiar military accoutrements: clearly distinguished ranks and titles, uniforms, insignia, official recognition through medals, regimental flags, proper military protocols, strategic planning, and other military procedures. The Napoleonic Era is a classic period of First Generation Warfare. Forces organized in this way literally conquered the world.

This was the style until the U.S. Civil War proved it to be ineffective and far too deadly, ending the First Generation. The main cause was the introduction of the modern rifle, with greater range and accuracy than the old smoothbore muskets. Repeating rifles, rapid-fire breech loading artillery, and machine guns began a new generation.

Second Generation was more top-down organized, featuring detailed central planning by generals often far behind the lines, maneuvering large forces on a clearly recognized “front”, using massive and more accurate artillery barrages, then following up with infantry. Second Generation originated through the strategic contributions of the French military, which other nation states, including our own, copied and sought to improve. This was the style of World War One.

The Third Generation is the product of World War Two. Instead of confusing and frequently ineffective massive troop movements and encounters, often bogged down for months and years in trenches, blitzkrieg “lightening fast” war became the norm. The forces no longer built trenches or fortresses, seeking to strike fast and get behind the lines. Instead of “close with and destroy”, the tactics were to “bypass and collapse”. With aircraft design improvements came massive aerial bombing.

This fundamentally supplanted the heavy artillery barrages of the First World War. Add modern tanks to the equation, and the war moves from smaller, contained battlefields to various larger fronts. This was the style of World War Two, where the USA introduced atomic weapons into the mix, setting the stage for the Cold War, including the rise of alternative warfare techniques.

In some ways, Fourth Generation is a step back in time. Today’s warfare again involves non-state entities such as: Hezbollah, Hamas, Tamil Tigers, FARC in Colombia, Al Qaeda, militias in Africa, modern adaptations of the old Communist Cell, leaderless resistance, religiously based armed groups, and a host of others. Nontraditional combat tactics long predate their use today. Spanish guerilla irregulars resisted Napoleonic occupation, and ambush by snipers was used in the American Revolution. In the early 1900s, “terrorist tactics” were used against us in the Philippines during the hideous Moro Insurrection.

American troops were shocked by the risks taken by the Muslim Moros, who charged obviously well defended US positions with little regard for personal safety. In fact, their assaults were so fierce that the Army developed a new handgun, the .45 automatic, to deal with these death-defying Jihadist warriors, who made the conflict awfully up close and personal. As today, the Muslim resistance fighters were not regarded as regular soldiers; hence they were indiscriminately abused, tortured and killed. While we succeeded in driving them back into the boondocks, Filipinos today are still plagued by the radical Moros, who now network with Islamic extremists all around the region. Some Fourth Generation tactics were used in China by the Maoists, and in Vietnam by the Viet Cong.

Just as in Iraq and Lebanon, no one could tell the insurgents from regular civilians, so “kill them all and let God sort it out” was often the rule. In Iraq, this appears to be the norm. On the world scene today, states are not so much in conflict as the forces of ideas and philosophies. In Iraq, this consists of conflicts between two Islamic sects and a few secular Arabs from the old Baathist party and the Sadaam regime. Iraq is in civil war, no matter what we’re told, or not told, as the case may be. While the battle lines are murky to Western eyes, they are quite clear to the warrior factions and the ever-targeted civilians.

Nationalism and the nation state are primarily European concepts, somewhat alien to the predominant Islamic worldview. Arab nationalism had its day with Nasser and the secularist Baath parties (since Iraq has fallen the last of which is in Syria) and the short-lived UAR. Besides, the British redrew the maps after World War One, arrogantly ignoring traditional cultural and tribal boundaries, scuttling whatever chances many Middle Easterners and Africans might have had to achieve a nation state.

At the beginning of the 21st century, we have put ourselves, needlessly, in opposition to Islam. Today, Fourth Generation Islamic internationalists ride the ascendant wave. With the exception of perhaps Iran, there are no Islamic states capable of doing Third Generation battle with the West. But 1.5+ billion Muslims are now spread out all over the world, in every country, no exceptions, so state borders make little or no difference to their religio-political agenda. The important thing is not loyalty to a nation state, but to the Umma, or Islamic world community. For many Muslims, loyalty to the Umma trumps all else, and there is serious talk of eventually reinstituting the Caliphate, a sort of Muslim Vatican.

While seemingly a contradiction of terms, Islam is a form of “international nationalism”, global nationhood based on religion. Many Muslims dream of the day when Koranic Sharia law and Islamic cultural values become the norm for the entire world. The battle is about a radical change of global values. The Occidental order is seen as decadent and ripe for a fall. Unfortunately, at least so far, they appear to be more right than wrong.

Westerners, with their Third Generation nation states and armed forces, seem not to understand such powerfully motivated forces. The most successful leaders and groups have a strong, vibrant psychological and spiritual base underlying their beliefs and actions. This is not so easily explained from the crass and cynical perspective of the secular de-Christianized West. Western leaders, for the most part, simply seemed confounded, conflicted and truly clueless, doing little other than issuing ignorant platitudes such as, “they hate us because of our freedom”. This is not the case at all. What “they” hate is not freedom or even democracy, but the oppressive tactics of a would-be empire seeking to impose a worldwide hegemony.

Wise up, my friends. The whole world is laughing at our ignorance and naiveté. Yet what I really worry about is what might happen when they quit laughing and take more direct action. All of this is happening while our allies strategically distance themselves from our failures and follies. Fourth generation warfare not only does not feature regular armies, there are no such things as noncombatants.

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, I traveled in a number of different countries (including Sandinista-run Nicaragua), often alone or with a lady friend. Now, I could never do that as Americans are hated and targeted almost everywhere they go. No matter who we are or what values we hold as individuals, we are seen as the enemy. To do the kind of traveling I did back in the ‘80s would be to seriously risk my life. Our image abroad has been seriously degraded. Recovery could take decades.

What our Islamic adversaries really oppose is not freedom or democracy, but a materialistic, immoral and corrupt consumerist culture that exploits others for profit and control. And, by the way, democracy may not be appropriate or even workable for certain nonwestern cultures. But beyond all the rhetoric, in actual fact, we are often opponents of real democracy. It is merely a convenient shibboleth.

All around the world, we support democracy in name only, often choosing to deal with conveniently cooperative dictators like the Shah of Iran, the Saudi royals – and Sadaam. Real democracy frightens the Powers That Be. When Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was freely elected in Iran, but especially when Hamas was democratically elected in Palestine, the PTB could barely withhold their vitriol and disapproval. Democracy is great; when they elect our guys. Our hypocrisy is evident and apparent to almost everyone in the world; except ourselves.

We call our adversaries terrorists, failing to recognize and admit our own acts of violence, intimidation and war crimes, such as being the only nation to ever use nuclear weapons of mass destruction. The A-Bomb was used needlessly against civilians in Japan, not to mention the firebombing holocaust of Dresden and other European cities, perpetrated by the Allies. Later, we wreaked havoc on Korea, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries. In spite of the “domino theory”, Vietnam never sought to harm us or conquer other nations after they won the war.

Today, we wreak havoc in Iraq, looting museums and ancient artifacts, effectively destroying one of oldest inhabited areas of the world. No one knows how many civilians have actually been killed, but hundreds of thousands is likely, and this is without adding the uncountable thousands of deaths to come from Depleted Uranium poisoning. Deformed Iraqi babies are already being born. While Sadaam was really not a very nice guy, and killed some political enemies over the years, nothing he ever did can compare with what we have done in Iraq in a relatively short period of time.

While suicide bombers kill noncombatants, when we line up the casualties, who has taken the greatest number of innocent lives? As the stomach-turning conflict drags on, more and more stories come out about atrocities committed by coalition forces and the puppet regime. As for the ferocity and ultra violence of the resistance, someone once said that terrorism is the nuclear strike capability of the oppressed. We always use our very best and most effective weapons. Why shouldn’t they?

So far, Fourth Generation forces are winning, both in Lebanon and Iraq. Another old saying comes to my mind: what goes around comes around. With all the mischief and mayhem we are causing, that one scares the holy hell out of me!

Western nation states and cultural systems are unquestionably on the decline. Once they were supposed to be shining Christian ideals of virtue and righteousness, but was this ever really the case? We live in a time where the rest of the world has little other than disrespect for the West. If you haven’t noticed, Western governments have a propensity to lie, deceive and threaten violence to achieve their goals.

Lying leaders, lawmakers and preachers easily dupe most simplistic Westerners, often buying into what ever they are told. Think of several classic lies in modern history. The Powers That Be lied about the Spanish blowing up the battleship Maine in 1898. They lied about the sinking of the Lusitania prior to the First World War. Just as the Germans said, it was carrying arms and munitions. The PTB carefully manipulated their advance knowledge of the Pearl Harbor attack. Then they lied about Vietnam and the “domino theory”.

And, to start a war with Iraq, they lied about weapons of mass destruction. And now, we are supposed to believe them about Iran? While I realize that most of you at this conference probably more or less agree with me on this, the truly sad thing is that in late 2006, more than half of Americans polled still believe Iraq had WMDs, despite massive evidence to the contrary! Frankly, this is disturbing and depressing, proving once again that our dumbed-down and gullible populace is easily, and often willingly, deceived. The old magicians’ motto was “Mundus vult decepi, deceptimur”. “The world wants to be deceived, so then, let us deceive it.” The political magicians have done their work well.

Will Euro-Americans eventually awaken? I have faith that we will, but hopefully, not too late. If we are to survive as a functional civilization, we have to enlarge our concept of cultural unity beyond the limiting confines of the traditional nation state. New paradigms will emerge. The Third Position movement is a creative example. What is more, old traditional models will emerge again, as discussed in the writings of Julius Evola, Rene Guenon and others. The stakes are incredibly high.

Our survival as an Indo-European culture is seriously in question. Because of the greatness of our people, there is still a chance, but the old era of the Western nation state is largely past, as it really should be. The real force behind spiritually based nationalism is not the nation state itself, but the development of the constituent people as a distinct race and cultural entity. This is something to die for. What we have become and now stand for is not.

As a matter of fact, I am quite surprised that anyone, even our all-volunteer armed forces (the modern-day equivalent of the multiculturally diverse Roman Legions in the last days of the empire) is really willing to die for our corrupted and debased values. For one reason or another, some are willing, but this is always how it is in wartime. But wait and see what happens if a draft is instituted.

If you think that many were unwilling to go to an illegal and immoral war back in the 1960s, what do you think today’s “slacker generation” will do when the draft notices start coming? They can barely find enough (often under qualified) volunteers to fill the ranks now, and I can’t really conceive of our young people, addicted to I-Pods, Play Stations, cell phones, raves, easy sex, ecstasy, pot, coke, binge drinking and meth parties, willingly marching away to battle. And, even if some of them did, would they be very successful? Perhaps we should hope the draft returns, forcing an end to the conflict as it did in the Vietnam era.

The old idea of the Western nation state is coming to an end, and no one really cares. Are you “shocked and surprised” by the lack of patriotism in America today? My goodness, that’s just the least of it! Times have changed. The Western nation state is in severe decline, because, among other things, we don’t seem to have many values worth defending. But even more of a serious error, we do not really understand an enemy, especially its youth, who are so little like us.

Great numbers of them hold high ideals and values, spurning the consumerist, sex-oriented societies of the West. But most of all, they are willing to offer the ultimate sacrifice to obtain victory for their spiritual values. Once, Westerners were willing to die for their beliefs, even when misguided, but this is no longer the case. Not only that, they are in for the long haul where we are not. Thirty years? Twenty years? Ten years? Less? Who cares how long it takes if you firmly believe your cause is just and that you will eventually triumph? Those who like to wager can tell me the odds on who will win.

Does fourth generation warfare spell the complete end of the nation state? Not entirely, but Western nation states have little of their past glamour or glory, with diminished ability to spur citizens to sacrifice to achieve goals. Nation states are still viable, as in past times, when they are comprised of persons with shared ethnicity, strongly held cultural mores and values. Iran is such a nation. But loyalties have radically changed in the last fifty years or so. The USA is no longer a European-American nation state.

We live in a time of newly evolving loyalties to other kinds of entities, such as gangs, religions, political ideologies such as animal rights and the environment, tribes, clans, families, kindred groups, new communities, and, of course, races. The USA is a devolving entity. We have given up our once great industrial might; downsized the health care systems when we need them most; real estate and mortgage markets are declining; we have a national debt that is already astronomically unpayable; and, we are disrespected and distrusted the world over. More could be said, but you get the picture.

The smell of decay is in the air. More importantly, the most frightening aspect is what might replace the ineffective and dysfunctional governmental institutions. Once a state entity effectively loses power, it’s “anything can happen” day. Look at New Orleans in 2005, expand this crisis level to most of the nation’s cities, and you have a good indicator of what will happen. This vast country could devolve into smaller entities, led by some of the factions mentioned. For instance, a gang, cult or other entity might control a city as in fantasy-fiction novels and movies.

Some of this is already happening, and more along these lines will undoubtedly ensue as time goes on, maybe in the not-so-distant future. Disrupt the food, water and fuel supplies, then turn out the lights and see who takes over the streets.

Among other ideologies, nationalist movements of various sorts will come forward to fill the gaps. Hispanic activists are already claiming the American West and Southwest for Aztlan. Asian communities are now well established in all major cities. Most of the 6,000,000+ American Muslims are grouped in communities. Will effective Euro-American nationalist movements come forth?

There is hope, but this remains to be seen. We live in a bleak era. Perhaps it is the Kali Yuga, the Dark Times, spoken of in our most ancient Indo-Aryan scriptures. But even if it is, we must view these perilous times as the dark before the light. A true new age is coming. Great myths and icons will fall, the Memory Hole will open, and truth will out. Nationalist-minded political movements are growing in Europe and all over the world, and for many of the same reasons as back in the 1920s and 1930s.

This conference was a genuine “think tank” of like minds. We now have a sense that ultimate victory is possible. It is our primary duty as revisionist thinkers, writers and publishers to preserve and pass on an invaluable legacy of authentic history and news reporting as exemplified by the untiring efforts of Mr. Willis Carto, The Barnes Review and The American Free Press.

This 2006 conference was an historic event in and of itself, where the forces of truth and light cease retreating and move forward. I close with the words of Oswald Spengler, words we must sincerely live by or see our way of life join so many other cultures, once great and celebrated, eventually displaced and discarded in the dustbin of history. Do what you can. Don’t let it happen!

“There is no cause for despair, and, even were there no hope of achieving any visible result before the modern world collapses under some catastrophe, this would still be no valid reason for not undertaking a work whose scope extends far beyond the present time. Those who might be tempted to give way to despair should realize that nothing accomplished in this spiritual order can ever be lost, that confusion, error and darkness can win the day only apparently and in a purely ephemeral way, that nothing can ultimately prevail against the power of truth. ... The man who matters lives in such a way that his existence is a sacrifice to his idea.”

Harrell Rhome is a freelance writer, with articles in both print and online publications, and is a Contributing Editor for The Barnes Review historical magazine. Some of his recent writings are available on Political Tsunami, an online nationalist magazine out of Buenos Aires. See links to several essays on rather diverse topics at http://www.tsunamipolitico.com/truth9.htm.
Write Harrell at EagleRevisionist@aol.com and subscribe to his Truth In History Email Bulletin, a free Internet service.