5th Generation Warfare: History, Modern Context, and (Some) Solutions

[Music] [Music] with everything going on in the world today a lot of people are asking a lot of questions most of which kind of come back to the same overarching question what is going on today we will attempt to provide one answer to that question i say one answer because there is no one answer to the world's problems but maybe one answer might help us identify some solutions to the problems at hand and that answer could lie within the idea of fifth generation warfare if only the idea itself wasn't so much of a paradox so what is fifth generation warfare well that's the trouble isn't it you can pause the video and go google the term fifth generation warfare and you might find some information or a wikipedia article that does a poor job at explaining what it is chances are you're not easily going to find a good definition for it so we will have to come at this topic indirectly by first talking about the first four generations of warfare and be advised a lot of this stuff is really hard to understand it even gets right down to the philosophy of the universe itself so thinking about this topic is not for the faint of heart for the first four generations of warfare we can think of the osophy of the universe itself so thinking about this topic is not for the faint of heart for the first four generations of warfare we can think of these topics as different ages of warfare all separated by technology and innovation more or less the first generation of warfare is pretty simple it's what we think of when we think of ancient warfare first gen warfare is characterized by certain tactics like the phalanx or line and column attacks of large armies clashing together on open battlefields this is the first real categorization of warfare in which nation states or groups or societies acting as nation-states fought against each other over time as technology progressed and allowed humans to kill each other more efficiently the second generation of warfare was born technologies such as rifled weapons machine guns and significant developments in the field of artillery for this era of warfare think world war one this is really where the term modern warfare comes into play where technological developments forced radical changes in the field of warfare gone were the days where large long lines of troops advanced over open ground welcome to the trenches but as we know following the c field of warfare gone were the days where large long lines of troops advanced over open ground welcome to the trenches but as we know following the carnage of world war one we have the interwar years the years between the first and second world wars during this time humanity experienced yet more technological growth and again developed a third generation of warfare we went very quickly from the sopwith camel and the zeppelin to the messerschmitt and the b-17 flying fortress and the technological developments of the inner warriors were quite astounding and occurred very rapidly even within the field of aviation this the bristol f2 became this the spitfire in less than nine years but in this era of warfare we also have developments on the ground namely by a little thing called the vegans creek maneuver warfare also called blitzkrieg by those who find bevegan's creek unpronounceable using speed and maneuverability to rapidly reach objectives in conjunction with a highly mobile infantry and further developments in combined arms warfare the third generation of warfare gives us world war ii but in the final days of world war ii a new war was building the nuclear weapon and its use in co he third generation of warfare gives us world war ii but in the final days of world war ii a new war was building the nuclear weapon and its use in combat was one of the most important events in human history and as a result the cold war developed conflict in an atomic age in which conflicts existed but took the form of proxy wars this is when technological developments change the nature of warfare yet again this is the era of stealth instead of using brute force using precision guided munitions instead of carpet bombing campaigns remember we're still in the third generation of warfare still in the world war two mentality for conflicts like korea the vietnam war the persian gulf war and even the later iraq war the third generation of warfare encompasses the winning hearts and minds concepts we know all too well new toys like stealth bombers and satellites changed a lot but the end goals and the strategy used to achieve those goals was very similar as to how the majority of world war ii was fought but one of these wars is not like the other again hinting at the academic squabbling that occurs when trying to define these things so to explain that let's jump to the fourth generation o other again hinting at the academic squabbling that occurs when trying to define these things so to explain that let's jump to the fourth generation of warfare the fourth gen of warfare can be defined in a single word insurgency and this is where things start becoming political and the amateur historian starts running into some problems with the research for instance one of the first academics to talk about 4th generation warfare is william s lind lind who is the most prolific writer on 4th gen warfare even has his wikipedia page slathered with politics we see that on his own page he is defined as a conservative why does that matter if we're talking about warfare doctrine he is defined by his politics first in his work second and scrolling down the page under the criticism section we have the very first complaints from the southern poverty law center so yeah there you go can't really get any reliable information from wikipedia anymore an idea which is thick with irony considering the topic interestingly enough it looks like most of his criticism comes from him linking his thoughts on warfare doctrine to cultural marxism which explains everything can't talk about communism or marxis s criticism comes from him linking his thoughts on warfare doctrine to cultural marxism which explains everything can't talk about communism or marxism in today's world or point out its problems without being labeled as a far-right extremist which is exactly what seems to have happened here too but anyway if you dig deep enough you will find one of len's thoughts on 4th gen warfare in which he defines it as when the state loses its monopoly in war he goes on to say that all over the world state militaries find themselves fighting non-state opponents such as al qaeda hamas hezbollah and the revolutionary armed forces of colombia almost everywhere the state is losing fourth generation warfare is also marked by a return to a world of cultures not merely states in conflict we now find ourselves facing the christian west's oldest and most steadfast opponent islam of course linde wrote this in the context of speaking about the then current u.s wars in the middle east but the interesting thing to note is that these wars have been occurring for a long time like i mentioned when explaining third gen warfare there is a bit of academic squabbling that goes on for instance take the vietnam war or a long time like i mentioned when explaining third gen warfare there is a bit of academic squabbling that goes on for instance take the vietnam war here you have a conflict that exhibits two styles of warfare in the years since vietnam has become the infamous poster child for that deadly eye word insurgency a disturbing number of people do not know that the vietnam war was far more conventional than we think we think the word vietnam and images of the vietcong come to mind u.s soldiers patrolling through the jungles and getting ambushed around every corner but there was this thing called the north vietnamese army which was a legitimate conventional military force no one knows about this more than the military aviation communities entire generations of military aviators have been trained with doctrine developed from the forgotten air war of vietnam the entire concept of the wild weasels and the doctrine of the suppression of enemy air defenses is a massive part of modern warfare from iraq to bosnia to right now in ukraine but at the same time the conventional third generation war was raging in north vietnam in cambodia and laos some dudes in black pajamas were defining the fourth same time the conventional third generation war was raging in north vietnam in cambodia and laos some dudes in black pajamas were defining the fourth generation of warfare which at last brings us to the fifth generation of warfare and here's where we start running into problems again because academics cannot agree on whether or not fifth generation warfare even exists up until this moment warfare has been defined by what some have called the theory of sequential emergence which is just a fancy way of saying that the first generation of warfare led to the second and the lessons learned during the second gen led to the third and so on daniel abbott came up with this graphic which indicates that the generations of war build upon one another and exist at the same time each progressive generation of warfare does not totally replace the generation before it but rather builds on it which allows for lesser developed styles of warfare to exist and be conducted at the same time in other words if your primary military operation is counterinsurgency you can still have conventional third or even second generation conflicts occurring simultaneously but the fifth generation of warfare seems to b ency you can still have conventional third or even second generation conflicts occurring simultaneously but the fifth generation of warfare seems to break this mold it seems like most people who talk and argue about fifth generation warfare are at least united on one thing fifth gen warfare does not really adhere to this progressive generation model so let's address some of these theories and try to piece together what fifth generation warfare actually is like i mentioned most academics sort of agree on the first four gens of warfare however that's where the similarities end a few academics such as william lind have stated that the fifth gen of warfare is really just a collection of tactics that should be nestled under the fourth or even third generation of warfare so it really doesn't have a definition as a separate field of warfare which makes sense because he's the guy who literally wrote the book on 4th gen warfare remember history is written by humans humans which have opinions make mistakes and have other faults that's why history lies in the heart of the debate and why we need to crack open another book if we take a look at daniel abbott's book adequately titled the handbook ry lies in the heart of the debate and why we need to crack open another book if we take a look at daniel abbott's book adequately titled the handbook of 5th generation warfare he states that 5th gen warfare is a war of information and perception which sounds about right but that's a really broad definition but we'll come back to that in a moment others such as the us air force see 5th generation warfare is simply an extension of the air war they see it as a sensor problem and that a military aircraft that is capable of waging 5th gen warfare will have certain sensors communication suites and other various electronics and capabilities to operate in highly contested battle spaces hmm not quite what we're going for is it this is great and all but not really what we're talking about with regards to fifth generation warfare itself this is defining the fifth generation of fighter aircraft which is not the same thing but this is important to note because the term fifth generation was first coined in this context which is why a lot of military strategists think of fifth generation warfare in terms of technology or sensors which is again not the right way to think about it in fact the peop ry strategists think of fifth generation warfare in terms of technology or sensors which is again not the right way to think about it in fact the people's liberation army of china figured this out a long time ago in 1999 a book or really rather a white paper which became highly controversial throughout the defense community in the early 2000s two colonels of the people's liberation army wrote a book called unrestricted warfare in which they examined this topic particularly in the context of a conflict with the west in their book they state that what we are referring to are not changes in the instruments of war the technology of war the modes of war or the forms of war what we are referring to is the function of warfare so again this hints at the fifth generation of warfare not simply being a new sequential progression of war this is also noted in a very short paper published by the think tank 360 isr which mentions that we are no longer fighting a defined adversary in a defined battle space for a defined period of time instead the 5th generation mission space is a continuous global battle of narratives that will play out over both virtual and physical space and encompass a range of generation mission space is a continuous global battle of narratives that will play out over both virtual and physical space and encompass a range of violent and non-violent actions and effects that's a pretty solid definition of fifth generation warfare however we again are reading this from a perspective of nation-state warfare this paper goes on to say that nations will seek to defend their borders through the extension of military influence examples include the deployment of double-digit sams and iskander missiles in kaliningrad or the build-up of defenses on hitherto unhabited islands in the south china sea therefore the experiences and lessons of third and fourth generation warfare still have great utility militaries still need to maintain and develop the capability to defeat a more traditional adversary in a technologically complex environment all of this i would agree with in the context of a nation-state's concerns with the changing nature of warfare it makes a lot of sense for defense officials to think along these lines however i'm not a cadet writing term papers at west point and though the two topics are heavily linked by the very nature of fifth generation warfare it wever i'm not a cadet writing term papers at west point and though the two topics are heavily linked by the very nature of fifth generation warfare itself we here are more concerned with the civilian implications of this changing style of warfare especially considering that it is in the civilian space that this war is being fought and here the elephant begins to appear in the room this paper literally just stated that in a fifth generation war we will not be able to define our adversaries and by default the other side of that coin is that we will not know who our allies are either and so we begin to plant the seed of what very few academics want to talk about us marine corps lieutenant colonel stanton kohr got a little closer to what we're trying to get at in the marine corps gazette from january 2009 he takes a more boots on ground approach to describing the symptoms of a fifth generation warfare he writes that the battlefield will be something strange cyberspace or the cleveland water supply or wall street's banking systems or youtube the mission will be instilling fear and it will succeed lieutenant colonel core's idea is a common one among fifth generation warfare theorists and be the mission will be instilling fear and it will succeed lieutenant colonel core's idea is a common one among fifth generation warfare theorists and one that you often see online by various websites claiming that fifth generation warfare is simply a war of propaganda or a war for your mind or something like that and i think that that simple definition is quite accurate but not totally remember the tactics used in warfare sometimes do not reflect and are oftentimes counterintuitive to the end goal for instance psychological warfare uses various means to get a person to think a certain way about something but is that the final goal no the final goal is to get a person to act a certain way actions are more devastating than thoughts in warfare but since thoughts lead to actions we see a lot of tactics being used to affect thoughts so all of this considered we can cobble together a rough list of some characteristics of fifth generation warfare as it applies to civilian and military communities alike first up is mass cyber attacks not attributable to an actor or a nation-state this one is kind of easy as many people have stated over the years the impact of cyber warfare on everything w ributable to an actor or a nation-state this one is kind of easy as many people have stated over the years the impact of cyber warfare on everything will be extremely significant very little has been done over the years to combat the rising threat of technologies on our critical infrastructure we have already found the vulnerability of somewhat invulnerable scada systems when it comes to pol or petroleum oil and lubricant production and the massive waves of cyber attacks at the commercial and at the consumer levels have proven the vulnerabilities in these areas as well very very little can be done about cyber attacks at the consumer level especially considering the interconnected nature of everything these days but we will address this when we talk solutions so this characteristic is pretty short just think matrix level cyber stuff that you have no idea where it's coming from a major part of fifth generation warfare but still pretty easy to think about something a little more complex is mass social engineering which if conducted by a nation state the social engineering might be conducted on their own citizenry again this is not a surprising tactic as societal norms and skills chang nation state the social engineering might be conducted on their own citizenry again this is not a surprising tactic as societal norms and skills change social engineering becomes a much more significant threat than in years past some could make the argument that people today are simply more stupid than in years past so social engineering works quite well whereas people in the past would never fall for the social engineering tricks of today while i myself fight the urge to agree with the cognitive decline of modern societies and cultures i begrudgingly admit that it's not as simple as people being stupid in our modern world what's more accurate is that people in today's world are vulnerable to social engineering that is different from people in the past our modern world has made many comparisons to the past akin to comparing apples and oranges which is something that militaries nation states and especially non-state actors have taken note of and that's why social engineering is a critical tool for waging a fifth generation war another attribute of a fifth generation war is that conflict will exhibit a lack of us versus them nature rather the conflict itself is often observed to be s attribute of a fifth generation war is that conflict will exhibit a lack of us versus them nature rather the conflict itself is often observed to be spontaneous much like with cyber attacks kinetic actions when they do occur in a fifth generation war are often seemingly random since we cannot observe the lead-up to the conflict conflagrations might pop up over a social event and might even be egged on by silent actors who seek to capitalize on the destabilization never let a good crisis go to waste right but the conflicts that do occur will not look like your normal conflicts of the past you might have some actors strike back against an adversary by targeting a third-party group to the bystanders this will make no logical sense but to the belligerents this makes perfect sense in the context of a fifth generation war that does not play by the classic us versus them mentality that's a lot of funny words so what does this mean in plain english well due to how globalization has severely warped our logistical networks it means to get ready for some weird stuff russia invades ukraine well we're gonna fight back by pouring out government purchased alcohol that taxpayers already paid for m for some weird stuff russia invades ukraine well we're gonna fight back by pouring out government purchased alcohol that taxpayers already paid for medical tyranny no longer working congratulations physically exercising at home is now white supremacy oh our economy is failing oh i know what will fix it putting uniformed u.s soldiers in elementary schools of course a lot of these examples are more accurately explained by the state seeking to increase their influence and control over the american people rather than the strange nature of 5th generation warfare but you get the point at the end of the day this illustrates the complexity and the self-fulfilling nature of a fifth generation war school teachers start teaching extreme political ideology and utter perversion in schools which makes parents upset which makes the doj upset and they start labeling parents as terrorists which makes the parents even more livid and brings people who don't even have kids into the fray along with social movements which impacts the economic sector and brings in career politicians with their own egotistical and tyrannical goals so now you've got a multi-front war going on which just keeps churning on rings in career politicians with their own egotistical and tyrannical goals so now you've got a multi-front war going on which just keeps churning on its own because everyone is fighting everyone else and all originating from a single point of origin points of origin which are sometimes linked to the next point which is that non-state actors are becoming primary belligerents another main characteristic of fifth generation war that separates it from even fourth generation war is the nature and power of non-state actors and no we're not talking about a terror group or cell that's covered in fourth generation warfare remember 4g warfare is insurgencies right fifth generation warfare takes it to another degree by including private companies just look around the world today and we can make some pretty interesting observations with regards to so-called private companies and their relationship with other non-state actors or even the state itself i know that we keep harping on the biden regime but this is actually a very fascinating example of the unique nature of the relationship between private companies and a nation state in a 5g war for instance a lot of people have noticed the extreme f the unique nature of the relationship between private companies and a nation state in a 5g war for instance a lot of people have noticed the extremely overwhelming support from private companies to protect the biden regime even when the vital regime didn't really explicitly ask for it a great example of this is the media and again it's utterly fascinating right now it's pretty obvious that the biden regime is directing all mainstream media sources at some point they've openly admitted to such in the past but it's not total control it's influence the regime wants remember there is not a white house representative sitting in msnbc's studio directing the show no we now live in a world of fact checkers who have been delegated the power to broadcast propaganda and push content that supports the regime sometimes they guess right and sometimes they accidentally go against the regime thus the thousands of news articles that have been changed this is a major part of fifth generation warfare not necessarily the propaganda itself but how private companies will seek to prop up nation states and political regimes with fervor that even the regime themselves thinks is surprising in a traditiona te companies will seek to prop up nation states and political regimes with fervor that even the regime themselves thinks is surprising in a traditional political structure or even a traditional dictatorship you would think that propaganda is directed from the top down that the nation-state is totally controlling and directing their media organizations but there's the difference in a 5g war it might be the other way around governments themselves might be the ones with the training wheels and private companies the ones with their hands on the seat saying good job obviously this is not the case everywhere but the bottom line is that in a fifth generation war the nation state is no longer the big dog in town and due to all of the information warfare that is also present in a fifth generation war governments might not even know that they aren't top dog in certain circumstances that's why people are now talking a lot about the new world order and other similar stuff in the open now because it's quite plain to see that there are non-state organizations entities and lines of effort that appear to be transnational is the world economic forum more powerful than a nation-state i don't know i ganizations entities and lines of effort that appear to be transnational is the world economic forum more powerful than a nation-state i don't know i guess it would depend on the nation-state i think that that organization specifically is not some kind of james bond spectre group despite the fact that they desperately want to be i think they're just another player and interest group on the board of globalization they might want to be the puppet masters of the world but they're still fighting to achieve that goal just like everyone else the great reset being their front line in this global fifth generation war of course this is all debatable but what is certain is that these guys and other non-state actors like them wield a lot of influence and though their success is not explicitly guaranteed their mere existence is exactly the type of thing that you would expect to see in a fifth generation war another unfortunate characteristic of a fifth generation war is nation states or powerful actors possessing the wrong tools for the job in other words nation states will fight the fight that fits one's weapons the united states has built a military centered around fighting insurgencies and her words nation states will fight the fight that fits one's weapons the united states has built a military centered around fighting insurgencies and though the pivot back to a more traditional near-pier fight has become more pressing following the pacific pivot to counter china and even the current ukrainian war the fact of the matter is that the us is best equipped to fight insurgencies so it is an insurgency they will fight even if that is not the right tool for the job this is kind of linked to what i was talking about when it comes to the lack of an us versus them nature right you're going to have nation states or powerful actors or non-state actors fighting against each other it's not really like a proxy war situation it's more like an innocent bystander or a non-affiliated group or society gets impacted by this conflict seemingly out of nowhere but due to the 5th generation warfare model it kind of makes sense like china is getting handsy in the south pacific or the insurgencies are kicking up in north africa again or russia has invaded ukraine well the solution to that is launch a counter insurgency mission here in the u.s like that's seen that's kind of like the the way we s invaded ukraine well the solution to that is launch a counter insurgency mission here in the u.s like that's seen that's kind of like the the way we're going to see this being manifested remember ever since the military occupation of washington dc in the days leading up to and the months after the 2020 inauguration the united states government has increasingly leaned on skills technology and doctrine that was learned and developed during the global war on terror it might not be as simple as like russia invading ukraine and the us can't do anything about that so we're going to target our own people because that's what we know how to do it's not really that simple but it sure seems like it tactics like crowd control checkpoints aerial surveillance and urban warfare have already been weaponized against the american people in short the us military is already a mile down the dangerous path of treating the national mall like baghdad and treating american citizens like iraqis of course this is not happening everywhere just yet but the fact that it happened in the first place breaks the illusion that it can't happen and the undisputed fact the undeniable reality that we have already seen that it happened in the first place breaks the illusion that it can't happen and the undisputed fact the undeniable reality that we have already seen certain states using armed soldiers to set up checkpoints on highways and checking the identity papers of citizens well i guess we are much closer to being treated like iraqi citizens than we thought and since these comments will invariably result in a lot of discussion let's briefly follow that rabbit hole a bit further if all you have is a hammer every problem is a nail and right now the us military law enforcement and federal agencies are the hammer and the nail is the citizenry just trying to live their lives with as much freedom as possible which is the antithesis of most political regimes regardless of the political party i know a lot of military folks out there might not want to hear this because people do not want to think that they might be the bad guy after all most military service members sign up to do good things and serve their country and for the men and women that are still dedicated to that despite fighting a losing battle those service members should be an inspiration to us all for those who are fighting back and ac ill dedicated to that despite fighting a losing battle those service members should be an inspiration to us all for those who are fighting back and actually living up to their oath we have nothing but the highest respect but from the civilian side of things we have to acknowledge that some of their compatriots and most of their commanders and leadership do not have the same dedication to the oath they swore right now there is a sort of reckoning within the us military there is an increasing number of people in the military especially senior leadership that care nothing about service and only care about the paycheck or their stock options there is also a disturbing number of military leaders that have more sadistic motives i can only speak about my own experiences and reference the experiences of the team here but in my own career working in an s2 or s3 shop i can confidently say that the majority of commanders i have worked with i would want nowhere near a domestic u.s mission of any kind in years past it would have been out of the question to suggest that most military service members would do the wrong thing and commit immoral and illegal actions against u.s citizens on u.s soil estion to suggest that most military service members would do the wrong thing and commit immoral and illegal actions against u.s citizens on u.s soil that used to be unthinkable but these days clinging to that mentality is not the best move i'm not trying to throw shade at the us military and i don't hold animosity towards service members especially considering the hardships that they have had to go through with regards to the medical mandates but for many those medical mandates are very illuminating most service members are jabbed and because of that what am i a us citizen supposed to think about service members prospects of refusing even more serious orders if they won't fight back against the one that just requires some paperwork i'm sorry but the soldier who takes up arms to prevent me from traveling between states or prevents me from getting within a mile of the house of the people that soldier is not my friend no matter how they might feel about the mission they might complain they might know that what they are doing is wrong in every conceivable way or they might only realize that what they are doing is wrong after the fact then i empathize with soldiers in that tough situat every conceivable way or they might only realize that what they are doing is wrong after the fact then i empathize with soldiers in that tough situation i really do but at the end of the day they made not just one choice but a series of choices and those choices result in shifting the nature of the relationship between the citizenry and the military we can no longer let our extremely high respect for service members cloud our judgment when it comes to holding people accountable for their actions and i understand why people don't like to talk about this stuff like it's perfectly fine it's perfectly socially acceptable i guess to lay criticism at senior dod officials we can rag on lloyd austin and joe biden all day long and you know of course some people will be upset at that but for the most part those are safe targets right those are safe things to talk about where people won't get upset but don't you dare talk about cousin timmy in the national guard he's a sweet boy he's a good person and he would never do anything wrong he was just following orders actions like this make us realize that there needs to be a healthy distance between the power of the institutions and the monopoly t following orders actions like this make us realize that there needs to be a healthy distance between the power of the institutions and the monopoly those institutions have on violence and the citizenry and despite that the dod clearly wants there to be an adversarial relationship there there doesn't necessarily need to be there just needs to be a healthy respect between the military and the citizenry and the fact that the institutions are changing the way that we have to think about things the us government has segregated itself from the citizenry in every conceivable way but especially judicially so we would do well to recognize that so sorry for the digression i know that we're supposed to be talking about fifth generation warfare but that's the interesting part we have been talking about it this entire time i know it may not seem like it but examining the relationship between the citizenry and the institutions that are causing problems is a critical part of fighting back in a fifth generation war it was the department of defense not me that started this the dod and the current political regime brought warfare into our living rooms and onto our streets and though the price for not me that started this the dod and the current political regime brought warfare into our living rooms and onto our streets and though the price for this has yet to be paid a side effect of these actions is that people like me now have to look at this which leads us to attributing these actions as a characteristic of a fifth generation war being waged on u.s citizens it's uncomfortable it really is but at this point my own state's national guard has restricted my freedoms more than any foreign nation ever has and ignoring this fact because it makes military leadership uncomfortable or trying to provide excuses for service members choices out of respect for their service is negligent on our part remember there are a lot of other non-5th gen wars going on right now and there are a lot of threats we have to face in the world today and we need a strong military but we are not going to win those conflicts if we are stuck fighting a 5th gen war here at home which is why these uncomfortable conversations must happen so we can see how this is an insanely difficult problem to define especially with other conflicts occurring that are muddying the waters a lot of people in the field of warfa s an insanely difficult problem to define especially with other conflicts occurring that are muddying the waters a lot of people in the field of warfare academia have struggled to define this every few years someone comes up with a new way to try to categorize it remember the whole small wars theory from a few years back this was the theory that in a post-nuclear post-mutually assured destruction age we will not have large devastating global wars but rather smaller more frequent proxy wars in far-flung regions of the earth well the ukrainian war is kind of disproving that theory right now but if you boil it down it seems like the small wars theory is really just a re-categorization of the nature of insurgencies and how technology has aided them sprinkled with a few fifth generation warfare tactics that nation states have been using since the great bog down of g watt we've got a lot of arguments here on how to define and categorize the tactics and characteristics that we observe but there's a huge problem what if we do not observe the tactics if you go up to a vending machine and it takes your dollar without giving you your bag of chips you wouldn't think anything of it yeah you'd b tactics if you go up to a vending machine and it takes your dollar without giving you your bag of chips you wouldn't think anything of it yeah you'd be annoyed but you wouldn't look at it like it's a hostile action against you you wouldn't treat that as a hostile action against yourself by a nation-state or other malign actor it's just something that happens now what if it was a voting machine ah now we might start attributing a bit of malign action to something like that due to the context that's a bit more clear to define and academics can argue over what box to put election tampering in but you see our perspective on things and our historical ability to recognize what is a hostile action is heavily affected by this new age of warfare something bad happens to us and we want to attribute it to an adversary but if we can't we just suck it up and go without our bag of chips or even worse we shove another dollar into the same machine again hoping the result will change something else to consider is that a lot of people or really just the four people who care about these kinds of topics tried to apply the debates we've seen in the world of artificial intelligence which i think is inte e four people who care about these kinds of topics tried to apply the debates we've seen in the world of artificial intelligence which i think is interesting for instance a lot of people have been thinking about artificial intelligence and have had a lot of thoughts on it for instance elon musk is well known for his really serious thoughts on ai that do not reflect a bright future for humans stephen hawking was also well known for his views of ai stating that whereas the short-term impacts of ai depends on who controls it the long-term impact depends on whether it can be controlled at all the same line of thinking the same philosophy and reasoning can and in our opinion should be applied to this new style of warfare that's what makes 5th generation warfare something unique and not just a technological progression following 4th gen warfare here's what i think a 5th gen war will be over or it will have transitioned to something else before most people even realize it has even begun i think that we're currently fighting a global 5th gen war right now and i'm not really so concerned with what box it goes into call it 6th or 7th gen warfare i don't care and the symptoms of this war will war right now and i'm not really so concerned with what box it goes into call it 6th or 7th gen warfare i don't care and the symptoms of this war will make no sense when compared to the previous lines of thinking like how many of you out there have gone through your day and just suddenly felt anxious for no apparent reason or you psych yourself out with just your own thoughts about something or experience symptoms of depression or apathy again for no reason whatsoever or even just the feeling that something isn't quite right but you can't figure out what it is i'm certainly no psychologist but i can tell you that all of the above is exactly what i would expect a 5th generation war to look like and we are not alone in these observations i think this is why so many ideas are coming out right now ideas that used to be labeled as ridiculous conspiracy theories now the general theory is becoming that the only difference between an outlandish conspiracy theory and undisputed fact is about six months can you have a war without conflict a war where there are no enemies and no allies but casualties everywhere a war in which actual combat isn't really the main attack but you standing at a ve where there are no enemies and no allies but casualties everywhere a war in which actual combat isn't really the main attack but you standing at a vending or voting machine is you see how philosophical and weird this stuff gets it goes way over my head and it drives me crazy it really does i don't think you guys know how hard it was to write this script because man i tell you this stuff is really freaky to think about and put into words on paper and thinking along these lines illustrates where most academics who have discussed 5th gen warfare have gone astray every single person who has discussed fifth generation warfare has done so from the perspective of a military strategist or a military historian which is not inherently bad that actually makes the most sense you would expect the same guy who spent years writing about 3rd or 4th gen warfare to naturally talk about the 5th gen of warfare and how technology has affected the history of war however we think that a milestone has been reached we think that 5th generation warfare is just as much a concern to civilian academics as military strategists after all we are not fighting this fifth generation war in a lecture hall at west po t as much a concern to civilian academics as military strategists after all we are not fighting this fifth generation war in a lecture hall at west point or in a conference room full of majors and colonels we are living this war in our grocery stores in our schools and in our homes this is not some issue that can be philosophized over mahogany conference tables this is our life now so at last after taking all of these ideas and putting them together we can piece together our definition for what fifth generation warfare really is fifth generation warfare is defined as a global war of ideas and narratives this style of war is primarily fought in the information space however the actions undertaken in the information space are not intended to be the final goal but rather a way to affect the physical kinetic battle spaces cyber warfare is a critical part of fifth generation warfare but these tactics do not supersede the overall function of fifth generation warfare rather actions in the cyber battle space are a tool to both supplement traditional forms of military warfare while simultaneously serving as a tool that certain actors can utilize to further their war of ideas the ambiguous n itional forms of military warfare while simultaneously serving as a tool that certain actors can utilize to further their war of ideas the ambiguous nature of this cyber realm most clearly illustrates the uncertainty present through this style of warfare and the struggle that is present through societies as citizens try to make sense of their world around them this ambiguity is key the perfect crime is the one that no one ever knows has been committed and as such a perfect fifth generation war is one that the target never even knew occurred so what do we think are we currently fighting a fifth generation war without knowing it and what's the end result if we soak up all of this information in these theories can we get to an answer to the primary question what is going on i think that united states political and social groups in their lust for power and control have stumbled into starting a fifth gen war in some cases this appears to have been unintentional due to gross incompetence and negligence but in other cases fifth generation warfare tactics have been used to intentionally target opponents we know that this fifth generation war is not perfect and ripe with incompetence becaus rfare tactics have been used to intentionally target opponents we know that this fifth generation war is not perfect and ripe with incompetence because we are talking about it in the first place echoing rene descartes we think that fifth generation warfare exists therefore it is not a perfect exemplification of it however there is a great danger in simply dismissing world events or domestic us policies particularly economics policies due to incompetence u.s politicians and oligarchs far too often fall into the trap of the dunning-kruger effect so we the american people cannot afford to overestimate our abilities or underestimate our adversaries regardless of what style of warfare is occurring even the dreaded indefinable and mystical fifth generation war humans can only really use critical thinking skills to determine the best ways of fighting this war which is what we can try to do right now every problem has a solution and even if the solutions we've come up with don't exactly work at least they're not terrible ideas and it might be a good way to move in the right direction so let's go down the list here's how you win a fifth generation war number one is take care of your weapon a good way to move in the right direction so let's go down the list here's how you win a fifth generation war number one is take care of your weapon remember this war is a battle of wills more than anything else and the attempts to psych you out and make you think and act a certain way are the main weapon against you in a fifth generation war your primary weapon is your mind in conventional warfare a good soldier takes care of his weapon cleaning and lubricating it to ensure that it is ready for the fight at any moment this same exact dedication is absolutely crucial in a fifth generation war when your weapon is not a rifle but the square foot of real estate between your ears and doing everything possible to preserve your primary weapon and ensuring that it is in tip-top shape at all times is crucial gas lighting is a primary weapon in this war and you will not be able to fight back against that if you are not in the right mindset take the ukraine situation for instance yes it is true that the ukrainian war is a major conflict that has already had lifelong devastating effects for the ukrainian people and the russian citizenry as well but here in my living room the war for me is pe as already had lifelong devastating effects for the ukrainian people and the russian citizenry as well but here in my living room the war for me is people or bots on twitter warping reality so much that it's not even recognizable that's partly why we've had little success in providing updates on what's going on in ukraine the war on ukraine is certainly real with real artillery and real molotovs but for me at home the 5th generation war rages on and while the team here is trying to track down tweets our gas prices are climbing higher food is becoming scarce rationing is going on all around fertilizer shortages are making gardening more difficult and the issues that we need to care about first on the home front take a back seat to the 5th generation war and that needs to stop i'm not saying to completely ignore everything that goes on outside your living room the conflict in ukraine has proven what people have apparently forgotten over the years that a war halfway around the planet can and usually does affect your life here at home so pay attention but do not let it run your life do not let it become part of your identity and if things get crazy remember to keep your head on straigh pay attention but do not let it run your life do not let it become part of your identity and if things get crazy remember to keep your head on straight reassess what your priorities are and what's important to you finding ways of reducing stress physical exercise nutrition finding religion or some other form of assured moral value system are all extremely important aspects of keeping your mental state in fighting condition in this same category of keeping your mind in the right place it would be wise to re-examine other lifestyle habits this is something that i'm actually surprised that i haven't seen a lot of people talk about to me this is just a natural line of thinking but for many this is a subject that not a lot of people want to hear so i'm just going to come out and say it if someone is known to drink alcohol to excess or consume copious amounts of narcotics i'm not likely to want them on my team this has nothing to do with religious moral or legal reasons or even with the vulnerabilities that come with such lifestyle choices but rather the dedication to helping us fix problems yeah sure people can bring up their rights to consume whatever they want and that's fine obviousl but rather the dedication to helping us fix problems yeah sure people can bring up their rights to consume whatever they want and that's fine obviously i'm not speaking to those fighting addictions there's always room at the table for those who are fighting to make themselves a better person i'm really referring to those who have social addictions or those who think that their behavior in this regard doesn't matter because it certainly does and here's why if someone is constantly trying to alter their reality escape the world for some time i am not likely to listen to them for solutions on how to fix the world we live in or to fight in this 5th generation war their solution is to leave the world my solution is to try to fix it people can do what they want and i don't necessarily fault people for consuming drugs or alcohol for any number of reasons but at the same time i also need people on my team that do not need these things to function i need lean mean and efficient warfighters if someone is known to get plastered or high every weekend i question their dedication to helping fix the world if they are constantly trying to escape it no matter how popular their podcast is a lot of p kend i question their dedication to helping fix the world if they are constantly trying to escape it no matter how popular their podcast is a lot of people will not agree with this opinion and that's fine but what is undeniable is that if we want to fix the world or even just a small portion of it we have got our work cut out for us and we cannot spare any brain cells in this endeavor we need excellence or at least the dedication to the attempt to achieve excellence and if you are trying to be a leader in your community anything less will be a disappointment number two is take actions to make the tools of 5th generation warfare irrelevant to you if the government has the monopoly on violence take actions to not meet that violence head-on but make it irrelevant make the us government deploy 65 000 troops in and around the us capital and not a single protester or target to be seen let them put up their fence around the houses of the people let them besiege themselves and isolate themselves from the american people because last time i checked weed and corn has not grown anywhere inside the city limits of washington dc when thinking about fifth generation war globalization has made it ecked weed and corn has not grown anywhere inside the city limits of washington dc when thinking about fifth generation war globalization has made it really hard to think of in terms of a regional conflict most 5th gen warfares will be global in nature but if we take the slice of the pie that is the conflict here in the u.s we can clearly see the things that have already been weaponized against the american people the past two years have been a free preview of what is to come and now that the jig is up it would be wise to look back and remember what the architects of the 5th gen war that took place here at home did to the american people energy food employment interstate travel access to medical care the right to raise and care for your own child the intentional lack of policing in certain areas access to defensive tools and countless other tactics have been used against the american people over the past two years sure we can define this as tyranny or totalitarianism and that would be accurate but what would also be accurate is defining these events as tactics in a fifth generation war that is using tyranny and totalitarianism in order to win prepping in this scenario is good becau ng these events as tactics in a fifth generation war that is using tyranny and totalitarianism in order to win prepping in this scenario is good because it allows you to have capabilities when others don't if and when your local government tells you that they will shut off your power and water supply because you disagreed with them if you are prepared you will be able to say right back to them bring it on by preparing you are reducing the power that others have over you number three is raise your children to have good values and not the values that the state wants them to have we keep harping on this one because it's so important in the field of warfare we all know the importance of seizing the high ground but what about the human terrain clearly the world elites have identified your children as key terrain and they are doing everything they can to take them from you on an ideological and sometimes physical level this was a huge realization for me personally over the past year or so looking back over the years it's not really that hard to see how things work when it comes to most federal agencies especially when it comes to who they persecute but what has been quite surprising is t d to see how things work when it comes to most federal agencies especially when it comes to who they persecute but what has been quite surprising is the level at which parents have been persecuted at school board meetings that hammer coming down with such ferocity has been crazy i don't think i've seen the us government be so dedicated to anything else in recent years with the exception of the medical tyranny of course but man watching federal agencies go crazy over this and persecute parents this much is suspicious like why is the fbi using the patriot act against this particular target they could have gone after anybody else like the pro second amendment lobby or the pro-trump crowd or the anti-biden crowd why go after this target so hard the fbi pulling out all the stops and publicly using every asset at their disposal to target parents at school board meetings is very suspicious why do federal agencies care so much well because they realize that if we take back our children from the control and or influence of the state we will have the upper hand when those children grow up but again there was a pattern to this remember how many children informed on their parents to the fbi th ve the upper hand when those children grow up but again there was a pattern to this remember how many children informed on their parents to the fbi that they were at the rally on january 6 children even young children turning against their parents should have been a wake-up call as to the brainwashing for lack of a better term that is occurring in public schools and unfortunately there is no reason to believe that this brainwashing will not continue into the future now i know what a lot of you are thinking this is a garbage solution this is a big decision and it is really difficult to take your kids out of school not because it's particularly hard to teach children but because a lot of times both parents or caretakers have to work full-time jobs just to pay the rent and single parents are infinitely challenged in the same way as well so deciding to take your kids out of school is not a decision that is quick or easy this is a long-term strategic decision however if you want our recommendation here it is if you are on the fence or even remotely have the capability to take your kids out of public school i would seriously recommend it at this point of course decisions must be balanced remotely have the capability to take your kids out of public school i would seriously recommend it at this point of course decisions must be balanced and if a child is better off in the care of the state than with their parents nothing is more unfortunate but that's the way it is in a lot of cases however i would argue that at this point there are very very few children in the entire country that are benefiting from their public school education and most of those benefits are not related to education if nothing else recognizing this keeps us honest we can point the finger at everyone else but if we put our own kids in situations that we would not put ourselves in that's hypocritical after all this is a war of ideas and narratives and in this war your child's mind is absolutely a major front line number four is grow your community i mentioned prepping earlier but prepping goes a lot further than just stockpiling goods you need to create networks of people this is obviously more difficult you can't go to a store and buy these kinds of preps you can't order a friend off of amazon this is not easy or even possible for some people even for me personally i live in an area in which assoc preps you can't order a friend off of amazon this is not easy or even possible for some people even for me personally i live in an area in which associating with my local neighbors is just not an option most of my immediate neighbors are openly hostile towards anyone who is not part of their social or racial group and being in this situation myself and having other staff members here in a similar or worse situation we recognize that others are probably in a similar boat as well it would be nice if we could all wave at our neighbors and make acquaintances and eventually develop friendships with people that we share our geography with and for the people that can do that you guys are lucky but unfortunately that is not the case for a lot of people and with the economy the way it is with people getting fired or discharged left and right for political reasons the solution of just moved to a new location is more difficult now than ever before and if you live in an inhospitable area like we do an area in which waving to your neighbor might get you stabbed helping us to develop technological solutions to create longer distance networks is a good idea if developing local networks is not an et you stabbed helping us to develop technological solutions to create longer distance networks is a good idea if developing local networks is not an option there is an old saying that you go to war with the army that you have not the army you want and though this has been used in a military context as justification to send the us army to war without armored vehicles the mentality is quite true we have known for some time that when a disaster strikes the networks you already have in place are the only ones that will be of any use you can't really make friends with people during a riot or when your entire neighborhood is looting competent robust networks of people working together for their common good and defense cannot be manufactured during or after a crisis only before and when a crisis is not a temporary event but rather a long fifth generation war raging throughout society this dedication to setting up networks now becomes even more important number five is create white space between yourselves and adversaries in the context of warfare the term white space can mean many things but in this context white space is terrain usually a geographic area in which the enemy has to cross arfare the term white space can mean many things but in this context white space is terrain usually a geographic area in which the enemy has to cross over before they can get to you to illustrate this let's look at a castle now a castle is what we typically think of when we think of a fortress a heavily defended piece of terrain that is very difficult to traverse even today if you were to go to europe and walk around the grounds of most castles and fortresses you would notice just how difficult it is to get inside from the outside that's what castles were designed to do to slow down an enemy advance by making it very difficult to actually get inside in short if there was a bad guy trying to get to you and he was outside the castle walls and you were buttoned up inside it would take some time for that adversary to get to you and even if they do get inside the walls most fortifications are what we call defenses in depth meaning that there are usually inner walls additional fortifications firing positions you name it just in case now think about your average house in the united states in this example a would-be assailant can stand on the sidewalk all day long perfectly legally in most nk about your average house in the united states in this example a would-be assailant can stand on the sidewalk all day long perfectly legally in most areas and when they decide to strike the only barriers in their way are maybe a fence and front door once they breach that front door they have access to the entirety of the house so in our analogy the castle has lots of white space lots of terrain or obstacles that an adversary has to traverse before they can actually do anything to you and a normal residential house doesn't have very much white space at all now i use this somewhat left field analogy not to make the point that you need to physically fortify your home though that wouldn't be a bad idea creating white space also applies to the information space as well and this takes the form of privacy not giving your real name to the coffee shop employee or maybe not letting someone know your opinions on certain issues until you get to know them really well these are great ways to increase your privacy and therefore increase the white space in the information space about yourself in other words the more information that another person knows about you the more potential avenues of ap space in the information space about yourself in other words the more information that another person knows about you the more potential avenues of approach they have if they wanted to target you a lot of people found this out over the past couple of years of cancelled culture and political targeting thus the popularity of the gray man lifestyle however a lot of people get carried away with this and go overboard being so gray that they stand out like a sore thumb the goal is not to shut yourself off from the world or society or your friends or co-workers the goal is simply to make better decisions and when presented with a choice choosing the option that affords the most privacy allows for the most options later and really this information white space idea is best explained with the next solution communications decreasing reliance on internet or cellular-based communication is a great way to both decrease your vulnerabilities in the information space but also grow your community like we mentioned before not all of us can be programmers or ethical hackers and for me personally it would take far too much time for me to learn the skills needed to safely communicate secret information s or ethical hackers and for me personally it would take far too much time for me to learn the skills needed to safely communicate secret information using any internet-based means of course this doesn't mean shutting off all internet-based communication that cannot reliably be done in society anymore for most things however if i need to communicate something confidential with someone else i will be doing it face to face or via very select and specific encrypted radio options this is not easy and a lot of people will find this impractical most people will but we here think that any possible way that we can get away from using smartphones for communication over the internet or a cellular network is worth it even if it's really inconvenient that's why we've put a lot of work into testing the feasibility of things like mesh tastic or handheld radios or even some things that we're developing ourselves as daily routine communications devices i know this sounds a bit archaic being so concerned about this newfangled internet thing the kids are using these days but we've got to remember that the internet isn't anything more than data going through servers there is no such thing as the clou re using these days but we've got to remember that the internet isn't anything more than data going through servers there is no such thing as the cloud it's just your data on someone else's computer and remember smartphones are the most dense collection of intelligence collection sensors the world has ever seen so taking steps to change that behavior no matter how convenient is worth a shot especially in a fifth generation war the ukrainian military is finding out just how deadly smartphones are right now their use in warfare has already proven to be a huge vulnerability for those who do not understand the risks and though right now we in the u.s don't really have to worry about a hypersonic cruise missile slamming into our bedroom because we posted a geotagged photo on facebook in the war of information there has been no tools so devastatingly effective against the american people than the smartphone in years past the conversation of alternative communications has come up usually in the context of a natural disaster the question has been how do we communicate when the cell towers are temporarily down or the power is out for a few days and in years past that question was valid but been how do we communicate when the cell towers are temporarily down or the power is out for a few days and in years past that question was valid but now in 2022 the question becomes a little bit more complex it becomes how can we communicate when malign actors launch cyber attacks against our communications infrastructure on a daily basis all the while powerful companies and governmental agencies are using existing communications infrastructures to gather information which will be used to target us in a world in which the concepts of justice the rule of law civil liberties and human rights only apply at large to certain social groups at certain times when it benefits certain oligarchs and politicians quite a mouthful but that's the complex nature of what we're dealing with when it comes to communications these days do i like sending text messages to contacts in the local area with meshtastic or atac not particularly it requires a bit more effort than just sending a text do i enjoy carrying around a handheld radio every day not really it's just another thing to carry and not used as much as a smartphone because so few people that i would talk to on a daily basis use radios as well it's just another thing to carry and not used as much as a smartphone because so few people that i would talk to on a daily basis use radios as well but integrating these systems into everyday life is important not just to test these systems out and develop familiarity with your equipment but because of the mentality that it requires i know that a lot of people are not going to like the conclusions that we have come to today particularly the captains and majors who clicked on this video thinking that we were going to merely talk about ideas that can safely be talked about in the classroom or around the s3 shop after all merely suggesting that the united states government might do something wrong is completely forbidden in all military education at all levels and that's a problem because anybody who researches 5th generation warfare without even considering this especially in the context of a 5th generation war is ignoring the gigantic elephant in the room every single book i have read on this topic dances carefully around any criticism of the us government and has conveniently ignored any possibility that the us government might be using these tactics on their own people to achiev sm of the us government and has conveniently ignored any possibility that the us government might be using these tactics on their own people to achieve their goals of power control or influence either domestically or internationally most academics will freely talk about russia or china doing this to their populations but never the united states which i completely understand no academic would ever work for the us government again if they publish research that suggests that a critical part of a global 5th gen war would be the united states using some of these tactics on their own citizenry even if that is exactly what the evidence suggests in a war of ideas and narratives we have to talk about these things in the open so for the military leadership out there listening to this please do not dismiss these ideas as simply an anti-government rant but rather a challenging way to think about the nature of modern warfare thinking about the nature of fifth generation warfare and all of its seemingly supernatural characteristics is not subverting the state or betraying your oath or anything like that despite what lloyd austin's powerpoints tell you thinking critically makes you a better leade g the state or betraying your oath or anything like that despite what lloyd austin's powerpoints tell you thinking critically makes you a better leader even if that critical thinking makes you question who your adversaries really are and the interesting part is that a lot of service members have been thinking about fifth generation warfare all along without realizing it especially after the past couple of years of sheer abuse from top pentagon officials in the form of alienation medical mandates illegal orders blatant and open lies and the persecution of things as small as what a soldier likes on facebook there's a lot of soul searching going on right now in the dod a lot of people really are reading that oath they swore and feeling the effects of what happens when their superiors act dishonorably and betray their oaths that is what a fifth generation war looks like i myself think that everything that has happened within the dod all of the bad stuff over the past couple of years from pt standards to medical mandates all of that is attributable to a symptom of a fifth generation war raging on a 5th gen war that results in many cases with the american people being labeled as an adver ributable to a symptom of a fifth generation war raging on a 5th gen war that results in many cases with the american people being labeled as an adversary and it is because of this this comparatively small aspect of this much larger conflict that we focus on certain things and view this 5th gen war through the lens of helping the american people as much as we can hopefully this explains some of the perceived animosity that we have expressed towards the us government lately it's simply a natural conclusion to come to when researching fifth generation warfare it's not something that is present due to a political ideology or anything like that it's just the natural progression in the process of critical thinking and if you disagree on that front that's fine and if you're a military service member who is disappointed with some of our conclusions that's fine too remember we're trying to view things from the lens of civilian life and fifth generation warfare blurs the lines between civilian and military cultures like no other generation before it and ignoring an idea because it makes your boss mad is not the mark of a good leader even if that is exactly what military career progression h ore it and ignoring an idea because it makes your boss mad is not the mark of a good leader even if that is exactly what military career progression has been for decades so with these reassurances given let's end on a high note 5th generation war is a daunting form of warfare but despite its somewhat mystical characteristics it's not a war that we are doomed to lose on the contrary a 5th generation war is easier to fight than one might think more complex to be sure as it requires a complete rewiring of the way we think about warfare but at the end of the day fighting a 5th gen war could be as simple as turning off the tv putting down the smartphone and going outside to play in the yard with your kid as we've been saying for a long time we're in this for the long haul and whether or not you want to call this struggle a fifth generation war or something else the fact is we have our work cut out for us and if we are successful in not letting ourselves be defeated by it we will have achieved something quite special so let's get out there make good decisions keep our heads on right and continue to do good things even if we for the time being have to fight in the shade [Music] [Music] yo make good decisions keep our heads on right and continue to do good things even if we for the time being have to fight in the shade [Music] [Music] you