Total War

The death of William Tecumseh Sherman. . .
is an event that will bring sorrow to the heart
of every patriotic citizen.
No living American was so loved and venerated as he
--Benjamin Harrison

I kick arse for the lord
--Dead Alive (1992)
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Regarding Harrison: everyone is entitled to his opinion.

Still reflecting upon the Civil War, the concept of Total War introduced by Grant, Sheridan and Sherman has been in Ranger's mind. Prior to those men, combat operations were generally conventional in nature.

Their new idea, total war, implies the application of technology and the aiming of destructive forces at the enemy's citizenry, extending the fight beyond the confines of the battlefield. It took war from the artificial construction of fighting over plots of ground, and made it personal and societal in scope. Sherman and Grant destroyed a civilian infrastructure to separate the conventional Army from civilian support, as well as to destroy both the military's and the civilian's will to fight.

This concept of total war that evolved is offered by way of example to show that COIN is actually a distorted innovation of the method, which is now aimed totally at the civilian population's will to fight, after their army has been militarily crushed. Unlike previous conventional wars, the U.S. death toll in current hostilities indicates that the civilian population has not lost their will to fight. It is like putting the cart before the horse, except there is no horse, and we are fighting the cart.

During the conventional phase, Shock and Awe was aimed at both the civilian population as well as the military structure. However, even that full-on attack did not achieve its objective. Though it achieved the military end (sort of), it did not destroy the civilian will to resist.

Today, the U.S. military conducts nation-building and COIN operations that target purely civilian populations. What the U.S. calls COIN actually consists of battling elements of foreign civilian populations hostile to our occupation. This is a form of Total War, sans war.

In Iraq and Afghanistan there are no enemy armies, there is no enemy country, and yet we fight.