Patterns of Conflict
| The works of |
| Works of John Boyd |
|---|
OODA WIKI Edition
Quantico Transcription
So if you paste all that together, you can come up with a basis for grand strategy. Here’s the basis for you. You better have this basis, because, otherwise, you’re not even going to be able to play that game. Sun Tzu had two-thirds, remember he said, “Know your enemy, know yourself.” You got know your enemy, you know yourself, and also, those third parties out there. It’s not just a two-cornered stool, it’s a three-cornered stool.
Audience: Is this the level above us as military people though?
Boyd: You, as a military person, better understand that, particularly if you get caught in a guerrilla operation.
Audience: I understand. I understand. But how—
Boyd: But the politicians better understand this, otherwise, they can get us in trouble if they start doing the wrong things. If that’s your nature of your question.
Audience: But once we’re committed, we’re well beyond this, and this is out of our hands.
Boyd: Wait a minute. No, no, no. You get in a guerrilla war, like I said, you can get inside the villages, instead of attacking the villages, in a sense, you’re playing this kind of a game.
Audience: Sorry, this is pro-active? You can do this before the conflict starts?
Boyd: Of course.
Audience: —is what we should be doing, before the goddamn conflict starts.
Boyd: Of course. Before, and even afterward, but it gets tougher afterward. [30:00] Your point is well taken. It’s harder. But it can still be done. It’s got to be done very delicately. But, you know, you can’t think of running a couple hundred tanks in there and blowing away villages, because all you’re going to do is alienate—you’re, pretty soon, it’s “that dirty son of a bitch,” they’re against you then.
Audience: But we should be doing this before the conflict starts, to begin with.
Boyd: Exactly. You know when we should be doing it? Right now.
Audience: Right now.
Boyd: Right now. The answer to your question, absolutely. Right now we should be doing it.
Audience: Not waiting for the conflict to start, when we have—
Boyd: Yeah, you want to get on top of it. Get that leverage. Not only that, you build up friends. Not only that, you’re not hosing a lot of people, except the guys you’re trying to beat. [Cross-talk] getting beat.
Audience: Maybe I was getting too much down into the weeds. By the time they send me in, I don’t have the opportunity to go into Grenada prior to, and try to make friends, try to get into the village to work with them.
Boyd: That could happen. When you’re sent in that kind of operation, you’ve already been given the order to do it. But you can’t disobey the order.
Audience: Very true.
Boyd: But then, what that is, that’s a screw-up on their part because we got pushed into that position to do something like that. In other words, now we’re attacking the village, instead of trying to get inside the village. And you can’t say, “I’m not going to do it,” because they’re going to court-martial you. But it’s still a screw-up. You understand what I’m saying?
Audience: Yes, sir.
Boyd: It’s still a screw-up. And we got to recognize it. We don’t recognize it, we’re going to continue to make more and more screw-ups. That’s all I’m trying to say. And so, it’s not only know your enemy and know yourself, but also, the third parties out there. And understand their culture in all those different countries, so then you can play this game.
And like the gentleman back there—what’s your name? If you’re not prepared to play that game, you know what my recommendation is? Stay the hell out, because you’re only going to muck it up and embarrass yourself before your country and everybody else. Which was your point, the other night. You’re going to screw it up, that’s all. And the people lose confidence in you, like right now, Christ, we’re having a hard time running that third-world operation, because every time you try to think of something like that, when we’re trying to help people out, “Vietnam,” right away they raise the flag. The very thing you’re talking about. They raise the goddamn Vietnam flag, then they all— everybody starts trembling. “Well, we can’t do that.” Even though you’re right. Okay?