It Takes a Network to Defeat a Network

...the 9/11 attacks were carried out by one network on another network: al Qaeda against the U.S. financial and political system. Yet it was not the immediate damage of the terrorist attacks that inflicted the real cost on the United States so much as the unintended consequences of the national security state’s response. Writing in the Los Angeles Times in August 2002, before it was even clear that Iraq was to be invaded, the political scientist John Arquilla presciently pointed out the flaws in such an approach. “In a netwar, like the one we find ourselves in now, strategic bombing means little, and most networks don’t rely on one—or even several—great leaders to sustain and guide them,” he wrote. Faulting the George W. Bush administration for creating the Department of Homeland Security, he argued, “A hierarchy is a clumsy tool to use against a nimble network: It takes networks to fight networks, much as in previous wars it has taken tanks to fight tanks.”

It took four painful years after the invasion of Iraq to learn this lesson. Looking back at the decisive phase of the U.S. troop surge in 2007, U.S. General Stanley McChrystal summed up what had been learned. In order to take down the terrorist network of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, McChrystal wrote, his task force “had to replicate its dispersion, flexibility, and speed.” He continued: “Over time, ‘It takes a network to defeat a network’ became a mantra across the command and an eight-word summary of our core operational concept.”

Notes:

Folksonomies: war ideology networks

Taxonomies:
/society/unrest and war (0.441763)
/technology and computing/internet technology/social network (0.182721)
/law, govt and politics/espionage and intelligence/terrorism (0.171536)

Keywords:
General Stanley McChrystal (0.986978 (:0.000000)), national security state (0.958971 (:0.000000)), Los Angeles Times (0.954769 (:0.000000)), scientist John Arquilla (0.953009 (:0.000000)), Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (0.930712 (:0.000000)), George W. Bush (0.927377 (:0.000000)), U.S. troop surge (0.920066 (:0.000000)), core operational concept (0.905072 (:0.000000)), terrorist attacks (0.820277 (:0.000000)), al Qaeda (0.809382 (:0.000000)), 9/11 attacks (0.795920 (:0.000000)), terrorist network (0.795100 (:0.000000)), nimble network (0.786446 (:0.000000)), unintended consequences (0.786182 (:0.000000)), clumsy tool (0.757036 (:0.000000)), immediate damage (0.756879 (:0.000000)), strategic bombing (0.753487 (:0.000000)), real cost (0.752706 (:0.000000)), United States (0.752328 (:0.000000)), decisive phase (0.745286 (:0.000000)), Homeland Security (0.740739 (:0.000000)), several—great leaders (0.738479 (:0.000000)), previous wars (0.730563 (:0.000000)), task force (0.725179 (:0.000000)), eight-word summary (0.723374 (:0.000000)), Iraq (0.613784 (:0.000000)), networks (0.599448 (:0.000000)), netwar (0.577020 (:0.000000)), tanks (0.574589 (:0.000000)), flaws (0.555223 (:0.000000)), mantra (0.548883 (:0.000000)), hierarchy (0.546207 (:0.000000)), flexibility (0.545643 (:0.000000)), invasion (0.542949 (:0.000000)), response (0.540542 (:0.000000)), dispersion (0.539596 (:0.000000)), approach (0.539471 (:0.000000)), administration (0.537768 (:0.000000))

Entities:
United States:Location (0.804669 (:0.000000)), Iraq:Location (0.664311 (:0.000000)), Stanley McChrystal:Person (0.657537 (:0.000000)), Department of Homeland Security:Organization (0.525228 (:0.000000)), Abu Musab al-Zarqawi:Person (0.517196 (:0.000000)), Los Angeles Times:PrintMedia (0.480076 (:0.000000)), George W. Bush:Person (0.455819 (:0.000000)), John Arquilla:Person (0.428028 (:0.000000)), scientist:JobTitle (0.403177 (:0.000000))

Concepts:
Iraq War (0.952355): dbpedia_resource
Al-Qaeda (0.918170): dbpedia_resource
2003 invasion of Iraq (0.848138): dbpedia_resource
Osama bin Laden (0.750105): dbpedia_resource
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (0.730406): dbpedia_resource
Al-Qaeda in Iraq (0.673404): dbpedia_resource
United States (0.665412): dbpedia_resource
George W. Bush (0.659577): dbpedia_resource

 The False Prophecy of Hyperconnection
Electronic/World Wide Web>Internet Article:  Ferguson, Niall (2017-08-15), The False Prophecy of Hyperconnection, Foreign Affairs, Retrieved on 2017-10-25
  • Source Material [www.foreignaffairs.com]
  • Folksonomies: history networks