Patterns of Conflict
| The works of |
| Works of John Boyd |
|---|
OODA WIKI Edition
Quantico Transcription
Now, let’s go to France, and you can lay it out in two phases. And I lifted these right out of some history books, all these charts. And you see the first phase, phase one here, you see what’s happened, remember they had this other sort of what I call the nebenpunkte or the cheng going up north here, and then the schwerpunkt coming out of the Ardennes, sweeping around until they threw the British out of France, and then the second part, where they conquered all of France. And this is strictly a, really a Leuctra/Leuthen operation, a single envelopment scheme you’re playing out here. And here, you see a couple, you see, a sort of a inside out
Leuctra/Leuthen, another one here. So it’s an eccentric Cannae with what I call Leuctra/Leuthen wings. Eccentric meaning it’s going outward rather than inward, in that sense.
But once again, what are they doing here? Penetration, isolation, penetration, isolation, that’s what I’m trying to get at you. No penetration, no isolation, no penetration/isolation, the guy’s not going to throw the towel in, you’re not going to subdue him, you’re just going to go on and on and on.
Wyly: But at the same time, that non-cooperative center of gravity—
Boyd: Yeah, what’s you’re doing—
Wyly: —it’s going on.
Boyd: Not only that, what you’re doing is you cut those connections. You generate those many non-cooperative centers of gravity so he can’t function. That’s what the isolation does, see.
Remember, I said the inverse Clausewitzian. Not go after the center of gravity per se, because you may not, but generate many non-cooperative centers of gravity, and then scarf up the debris.
That’s what I’m trying to tell you. And so, you know, how do you call this a concentration [unintelligible]? You know, it’s sort of not the right word, is what I’m trying to tell you. It’s some excess baggage we’ve got from the 17th, 18th, and 19th century, it doesn’t fit. There’s a focus, oh definitely that, that’s why focus is a good word. You have a focus of what? Efforts or focus of thrusts, so multi-thrusts. You see what I’m getting at? What’s focus, right? Damn right. Focus and direction. Okay?