ON WAR #323: Milestone

William S. Lind
23 November 2009

One of the ongoing themes of this column has been gangs and the role they play in a Fourth Generation world. Here in the United States they already serve as an alternative primary loyalty (alternative to the state) for many urban young men. Gangs will likely be a major player in 4GW because gang members are expected to fight. Those who won’t do not remain gang members.

The November 15 Washington Post had a story about gangs in Salinas, California, that deserves close attention from 4GW theorists. Salinas is reportedly overrun with Hispanic gangs. The Post wrote that its homicide rate is three times that of Los Angeles. It quoted a Salinas police officer, Sgt. Mark Lazzarini, on one of the classic results of state breakdown, chaos:

“Only half of our gangs are structured; the Norteños,” he said. “The southerners are completely unstructured. Half of our violence is kids who get into a car and go out and hunt. These kids don’t know their victims. How do you stop that? It’s very chaotic.”

Salinas’s new slogan might be, “Salinas: where even the lettuce has tattoos.”

But what is interesting in the Post’s article is not the gangs themselves. It is a new response to the gangs. Salinas has brought in the U.S. military to apply counter-insurgency doctrine to a situation on American soil. The Post reports that:

Since February combat veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan have been advising Salinas police on counterinsurgency doctrine, bringing lessons from the battlefield to the meanest streets in an American city…

“It’s a little laboratory,” said retired Col. Hy Rothstein, the former Army career officer in Special Forces who heads the team of 15 faculty members and students (from the Naval Postgraduate School), mostly naval officers…

Rothstein…notes the “significant overlap with how you deal with insurgencies and how you deal with cities that are under siege from gangs.”…

Leonard A. Ferrari, provost of the naval Postgraduate School, embraced the project from the start, hearing…an opportunity for a school “in transition from just a defense institution to a national homeland and even a human security institution.”…

“The idea was, not just Salinas,” Ferrari said, “but is there a national model for this”

From the perspective of 4GW theory, this is an important development. The Naval Postgraduate School is a DOD institution, part of the U.S. government. Its involvement in Salinas marks the federal government’s formal recognition of Fourth Generation war on American soil, and the need for a “national model” to counteract it. If we must involve the U.S. military to lead counterinsurgency efforts in American cities, then it is difficult to deny that we face something like insurgencies in those same cities. Again, the significance is that this is now formally admitted by the U.S. government, not merely noted by “outside the beltway” observers of 4GW.

The U.S. military officers advising Salinas on how to wage an anti-gang counterinsurgency are doing so as volunteers, according to the Post, to avoid Constitutional issues. But the camel’s nose is obviously inside the tent. Many wars have begun by sending “volunteers.” If, as likely, the volunteers prove insufficient, regular troops will follow.

As someone who believes in a strictly limited federal government, the government envisioned by our Founders, I find this troubling. But from a 4GW perspective, I also know it is inevitable. As I have said time and again, the main Fourth Generation threat we will face will be on our own soil, not halfway around the world, where we are currently pouring our strength out into the sand. We will come to regret that waste bitterly.

Objectively, what the Washington Post has reported is a milestone, to be neither praised nor regretted but merely noted. It denotes another step toward 4GW here at home. It is a step we cannot avoid. As both imported and domestically-generated Fourth Generation entities ramp up their warfare on American soil, the U.S. military will be drawn in. As is the case in 4GW overseas, it will probably fail. Old Uncle Karl was right: the state will wither away. But what follows will not be communism. It will be chaos.

Note: Regrettably, the d-n-i website, which had become the worldwide “go to” forum on 4GW, is shutting down. It is a major loss. Fortunately, John Robb has agreed to carry all my columns on his website, Global Guerrillas. All my archived columns will also be moved there from d-n-i, as will the important K.u.K Austro-Hungarian field manuals on Fourth Generation war.

William S. Lind, expressing his own personal opinion, is Director for the Center for Cultural Conservatism for the Free Congress Foundation.

Comments

[EN]

Good stuff since I live close to Salinas and would prefer to live at La Selva Beach if given a choice. Nice to see that someone else is paying attention to what's going on in Salinas and Watsonville.

Many thanks to Chet for keeping the flame going for so long. It's burning bright and strong because of his efforts. It hasn't been easy for you in time and resources to do what you've done. Many thanks to JR for picking up the torch (forgive me my fire references). This site is a natural for Lind and 4thGW in general. Things couldn't be in better hands.

[RAISER William]

Good to be able to receive your continued analysis. Thanks to you for continuing and to John for hosting the site.

[aka jhon]

The downside,gangs will get their own 'vets' who will counter the cop vets..
..and the race war will commence,where no quarter will be granted on either side..The 'black flag' will fly...
oh well...

soldiers rarely attack one another but they love to go pick on unarmed civilians.

[dagezhu]

'pouring our strength out into the sand.'

Is that an intentional Genesis 38:9 reference, or is my mind just in the gutter?

I hate to be the first to sound ungrateful, so I preface this with a big thank you to John Robb for taking the trouble to do this. But ... On War #204 doesn't seem to be on the d-n-i site, nor on the pdfs of this site. Is it intentionally restricted for intellectual property reasons, or is it an accidental omission?

I find it interesting that naval officers are being trained to do local law enforcement. Probably they just had some extra personnel, but maybe the navy is particularly good at law enforcement. (They have to keep order on submarines and in other high-stress environments.)

Finally a question about Hy Rothstein - is that Hyram or Hyman? Somehow I'm guessing it's Hyman. What is the relevant part of his background? He was Army Special Forces, and he was an officer - I imagine he was a commando at some point. Did he have any interesting training and experience - Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, perhaps? Diplomatic attache? Public Relations and Recruiting? Or did they say, "Hey, this guy is great at rappelling down mountainsides, let's have him do urban law enforcement!" Is it bad etiquette to inquire too closely about the director's background?

[Matt]

Sorry to see DNI go away, but glad there is a new home for everything 'Lind'. I will come back frequently, and definitely put it up on Google Reader. Thanks Rob. -Matt

[Nils]

My aunt for many years was a public defender in Salinas and I can tell you with certainty that the gang problem there is, as they say, completely "off the hook."

Nils

[JJ]

Dear Sir

I take the liberty to comment, perhaps it is of your interest, about the recent publication of a paper entitled "Fourth-generation warfare: Jihadist networks and percolation", in Mathematical and Computer Modelling, Volume 50, Issues 5-6, September 2009, Pages 896-909, which I authored. (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mcm.2009.05.018)

In the article, I tried to give afirst approximation to 4GW, from the point of view of mathematics and physics sciences.
By the way, I would like to tell you, that since 2005 I edit a blog in Spanish language, dealing with 4GW, which is entitled:
"Complex networks and Fourth Generation Warfare"

Yours sincerely

JJ