(2005-07-08) Lind Fourgw Field Manual

William Lind released a draft of his FourGW Field Manual. While it necessarily deals with military theory, some of it quite complex, at its heart lies a story, the story of Operation David. Here, we drew on the model offered by the U.S. MarineCorps’ Command & Control FMFM. When Captain John Schmitt brought me the original draft of Command & Control, back in the early 1990s, I said to him, “John, the book needs a story that illustrates the concepts the manual is trying to teach.” John wrote a superb story, and ever since that FMFM came out, Marines have told me that they got much more out of the story than from the theoretical parts of the manual. I’m not sure our story is as good as the one John Schmitt wrote, but we have at least tried to do what he did. You can judge whether or not we succeeded.

Some interesting Fabius Maximus comments - Perhaps the structural constraints are too great and the challenges of 4GW too large for the US to successfully wage aggressive 4GW. But there is an alternative. Is the home court advantage decisive in 4GW? Can we can win with a defensive-only posture - second strikes only, but without restraint? (Non-Interventionism)

Jul13: there's already an updated word file.

Page linking to Aug'2009 version.