Month: June 2010

Robert S. McNamara’s lessons of war:

We and you ought not pull on the ends of a rope in which you have tied the knots of war. Because the more the two of us pull the tighter the knot will be tied. And then it will be necessary to cut that knot, and what that would mean is not for me to explain to you. I have participated in two wars and know that war ends when it has rolled through cities and villages, everywhere sowing death and destruction. For such is the logic of war. If people do not display wisdom they will clash like blind moles and then mutual annihilation will commence.

***

1. Empathize with your enemy

“We must try to put ourselves inside their skin, and look at us through their eyes, just to understand the thoughts which lie behind their decisions and their actions”

McNamara gives two examples – winning the Cuban Missile Crisis by understanding Khrushchev’s need to appear as the savior of Cuba, and analyzing the failure of the Vietnam War as a misunderstanding of the enemy’s intent and scheme. While the Vietnamese saw the war as a civil war, a struggle for independence, and considered themselves free of Chinese and Russian influence, the US perceived the war as a domino effect of Communism, a Cold War thesis. This latter thesis colored US strategic and political actions, which ultimately proved to be ineffective.

2. Rationality will not save us

McNamara argues that human fallibility can lead to terrible destruction – one man endorses the deployment of nuclear weapons. It might be wiser to temper power of such magnitude with proportionality (#5) and support of allies with comparable values (#8).

3. There’s something beyond one’s self

Wise and virtuous leaders must be accountable to the greater society. A leader must be a philosopher. Actions taken must be in the interest of the common good.

4. Maximize efficiency

Analyze performance and redress operational guidelines to better achieve objectives. Loss of force and effect must be accounted for. Clearly defined objectives are necessary for victory.

5. Proportionality should be a guideline in war

“[I]n order to win a war should you kill 100,000 people in one night, by firebombing or any other way. LeMay’s answer would be clearly ‘Yes’ . . . Proportionality should be a guideline in war. Killing 50% to 90% of the people of 67 Japanese cities and then bombing them with two nuclear bombs is not proportional, in the minds of some people, to the objectives we were trying to achieve.”

6. Get the data

With #4, the idea is to adopt an analytical rather than political approach to strategy. Why do certain circumstances, events and phenomena occur? What is the ultimate effect of our strategies, especially in regard to losses? Contingencies and modifications must be effected in order to achieve success.

7. Belief and seeing are often both wrong

McNamara cites the Gulf of Tonkin events, as well as misunderstanding the essential nature of the conflict in Vietnam (see #1). As an aside, clearly this has major applications for contemporary conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan; while the Taliban are a nationalist group which seeks to establish a Pashtun state, US politicians claim to be fighting global Islamist group Al Qaeda (source), even though the latter are not represented in Afghanistan in any appreciable way. As with Vietnam, this misunderstanding of conflict leads to ineffective and self-defeating strategies.

8. Be prepared to re-examine your reasoning

McNamara argues that if other nations with comparable values do not support your cause – you may have dubious moral or political grounding.  Accordingly, strategies and political objectives must be re-examined in order do what is right.

9. In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil

An invocation to Machiavelli – McNamara questions whether it was immoral to fire bomb Japan and kill millions of civilians, considering that tens of thousands of American lives were spared from a bloody invasion. Leaders must be willing to do what is necessary (no matter the cruelty) in order to preserve the society and to benefit the public good.

10. Never say never

11. You can’t change human nature

Rationality and reason has limits. Temper power with council.

“We all make mistakes. We know we make mistakes. I don’t know any military commander, who is honest, who would say he has not made a mistake. There’s a wonderful phrase: ‘the fog of war.’ What ‘the fog of war’ means is: war is so complex it’s beyond the ability of the human mind to comprehend all the variables. Our judgment, our understanding, are not adequate. And we kill people unnecessarily.”

Download the full archive of documents, including maps and original writings, here.

Random selections from my notes from last year’s pen and paper adventures:

The death and rebirth of Bestla the dryad…

[ Bestla you feel a sickness coming over you, a drop of blood drops from your eye and stains the white snow red ]

…

[ Over the weeks you proceed south through frozen [forests/fields describe] ]

[ Bestla  you realize that you are nearing the glade of Angantyr. It is a few hours to the west, in a secluded glade. You hid the great tree by animating the others and walling him into a place where decades before a brush fire had passed through and formed a clearing. The thought of his closeness warms your heart. ]

[ Suddenly, trembling waves of pain pass through your body, your eyes begin to leak blood and the skin takes on a blackish, sickly shade. The leaves and saplings growing from your body wilt and begin to fall off and you fall to the snow, which takes on a black puddle of decaying matter. ]

[ It is then that you realize that your treehusband is under attack ]

[ she is able to move, although weak, must save tree or gg]

…

[ Beyond the first layer of trees something is clearly amiss: The trees here are dead, their hulking forms are stripped of bark, and black lichens cover their trunks, eating away. The snow here is thinned and mixed with a sludge of rotting leaves, creating a putrid stench. Coming from deep within the forest is an echoing howl of pain which rattles the brittle trees ]

[As you proceed deeper toward the glade, you see things moving in the corner of your eye. Dark things. Shadows. An arm. Feet. Whispers fill the forest. Scratching across wood. Far across the way, shrouded by dozens of dead trees, the mahir which you encountered in Alesia stands in an opening ]

…

The roots have twisted and mashed together to create a tunnel into the glade, and some of them ooze blood. Moonlight is slipping through gaps between the roots, dimly lighting the forest floor. The vines are too close together to make out what exactly lies beyond the path, but you can see there is an endless ocean of roots beyond. Bestla recognizes those roots as Angantyr’s.

…

A vibrant, green root, two feet wide, shoots up in front of the tree in the shape of a handlebar. Standing atop it is the mahir, with a great axe in his hands. A few housemen are huddled under this root, as if tied together, still alive.

“Ash man…Crown…If not… the tree spirit…this old one… your men…. snuffed”

…

[ Bestla disintegrates, leaving behind a pile of twigs, leaves, soiled wood fragments and a dark green acorn. ]

Sweartlogian…

Dock-Alfar

The dock-alfar, or dark elves, are similar to drow in abilities and appearance. They live beneath the earth and shun the llght. Unlike drow, the dock-alfar are not quite as malicious or evil. They are neutral to evil in behavior, in general preferring to remain out of human affairs. They do not use javelins or crossbows of any type, carry adamantine maces, use poison, or have any of the cultural particulars of drow. The dock-alfar live in underground communities organized much like normal human communities. Like the dverge, dock-alfar tend to only be encountered in the loneliest of mountain regions. So infrequently are they seen that humans consider them more legend than fact.

Sweartlogian “the dark lodge” is an underground dark elf city located in the south eastern arm of the forests south of Alesia, right before the Centaur lands. There are some hills there, covered by forest, set into which is a magically runed door made of black stone. At 3 AM the door may be opened by a knock spell, but the entrance is heavily guarded, and intruders are killed on sight. You traveled there a few hundred years ago to collect supplies for your barrow, as the dark elves trade with the dverge, dwarf-like creatures, who are known for their magical crafts. You will be welcomed into the city (the huldufolk can speak their language) but you will have to explain why the humans are present or they will be killed.

The elves of Sweartlogian were used as mercenaries by the Imperials during the Wind Age in an attempt to counter the Ascomani magics. In this campaign their king Valdemaran was slain and the elves have since remained underground, although the vast quantities of wealth they won during the war have made them a powerful polity in the underworld. Valdemaran’s wife Maija is now queen, and is known as a powerful druidess.

…

You are brought into the city of Sweartlogian by your dark elf guides who walk with a strange, quick gait. After passing for about twenty or thirty feet through the corridor you enter into a massive limestone cavern which contains the city. Sweartlogian looks surprisingly like the Ascomanni hamlets on the surface, comprised of long houses detailed with knotwork, runes and gilding. They are nearly identical except in one regard: the lodges of the dark elves are constructed of a black stone, and the houses of the surface are wood. The city is comprised of a random ordering of such lodges, not unlike hakonsfjord, and the pathways, a bare rock, are meticulously clean. The cavern is warmer than the freezing surface, but not by much, and no hearths are visible.

…

“Welcome back Andvari, it has been some time. Why do you endanger my people by bringing ash men here? The last time we made oaths with their troublesome kind, my love was lost. They might very well bring the easterners here as they continue to run from their past”

“I will bring back the one you love if you bring back mine. His body has lied in state all these centuries, for this opportunity. I sense a power on your person that might restore his breath”

[ she wants raise dead scroll, party can try to explain  that he cant be raised etc or give scroll away foolishly and she will cast tree on bestla ]

…

On The Rebirth and Death of Forest Spirits…

When dryads and other forest spirits are slain their souls do not immediately leave the middle realm, but instead drift into a seed or acorn left behind in the dead body. Once this acorn settles in new soil, it will grow into a tree and the consciousness of the previous spirit is lost. Alternatively, if the acorn cannot find soil to inhabit, it will rot within 3 weeks and the spirit will be lost forever.

If the priest spell Tree is cast upon the acorn/seed, the spirit may:

1. Decide to release itself and die
2. Transform into a tree automatically without having to grow naturally.
3. Decide to return with its consciousness in a random natural form  (reincarnation)
4. It may be raised from the dead, in which case if it was severed from its husbandtree, it will die again.

A centaur ambush…

[describe emerging from forest to the north, describe you can see the fires from the centaur camps far on the horizon, miles away]

[ This section of river has only nominally thawed, will not be able to walk across. ]

[Will need to make rafts or something to ford]

[ While deploying across river, centaur rides up demanding all valuables, if no, attack from all angles ]

To Leptus…

Eahlmund enters first and takes off his helmet, hailing the king and calling back to your company: “This is the expedition of Angvard, son of Hygelac, come from Alesia.”

…

[ Over the past few years I was forced to mobilize the army here on a nearly constant basis in order to defend myself against the raids from Alesia. Accordingly, the centaurs in the countryside became bolder and seized upon our weakness, raiding with abandon. As I could not divide my forces, nor hire enough mercenaries to keep them at bay, I was forced to pay a hefty tribute in order to buy a peace with them. As it is, if I were to dispatch my forces to join with Alesia to act as a bulwark against the ancient ones, my kingdom would fall. I beg you, using the powers bestowed to you by our god, to sally forth and slay the leader of the centaurs, for if he were to fall, the rest would scatter. ]

[ His name is Tyrfing, and his camp lies just a week north of here. ]

War against the centaurs…

“The camp itself is said to hold fifteen families or so, and is surrounded by a ring of spikes and other obstacles, so that others of their race will stiffen against it. They will most likely have their animals in stockades outside the camp perimeter, as they hate the sight of other races. The inner patrol ring should be keeping watch there.”

…

Suddenly, you hear chanting in the tongue of the centaurs on the air and the wind picks up, whipping your faces and knocking you to and fro. Several of you fall over and become stuck waist high in the snow, a numbness afflicting the limbs.

…

Far ahead hundreds of feet you can make out the image of a patrol of centaurs. One of them is in front, chanting into the wind with outstretched arms. He appears to be screaming to heaven, looking wildly up at the gray sky. … Far to the east a mountain is moving toward you at tremendous speed, a colossal wall of ice and snow.

…

Andvari and Cruniac:

You have escaped the grey waste and Fulmaegen is bounding through the air away from the mountains surrounding the portal. Soon you come onto the Leptian plain. Fulmaegen’s light causes the snow to twinkle all around. It has been 5 days since you departed Leptus to descend into the underworld.

…

Tyrfing,

I send you my greetings. I hope the diplomatic convoy we abandoned in your territory was well worth the effort of chasing down? Some say they carried a large tribute in silver and gold to Alesia. Some coin to turn the final clans to your favor.

– E

Tyrfing,

So it is agreed, the last clan has pledged alliegance? March after they are taken care of, I will kill the old man when your hoard comes within sight of the north towers. With no one to lead the defense, I will station what men I have on the south wall. Attack from the north, the gate will be open, I have paid the guards there well. When you are inside, my brothers will heroically die in the defense of the city. I am holding you to your vow centaur: two kings of the south, not one.

– E

…

[ Escape somehow ]

[ Describe return journey ]

[Return to Leptus at dusk]

[ If come through north gate or visible from north gate, Eahlmund is gone, informed by guards that they were returning, king is dead with a slit throat in his bed chamber ]

[If come in concealed some how: Return by nightfall, the manor is quiet, Eahlmund is quietly talking with with the king in the great hall, the two of them are alone. “I will need you to remember your duties my son, for the road ahead will be rough, and you will be lord of this realm soon enough. The High King has returned, but we must prepare for war against the ancient enemy. These are the times that try men’s souls…”