Soob has an interesting post contemplating "Iran's Mini-Quasi-5GW".
Reading it, I was reminded of an old post here about a potential al-Qaeda 5GW effort (originally posted to Phatic Communion.)
Point being: we should perhaps not be altogether surprised that 5GWish events could emerge as options for states and and non-states within areas where multiple 4GW forces engage in conflict with one another. Some one of them, or several of them, might well be motivated to make the leap to x+1.
Reading it, I was reminded of an old post here about a potential al-Qaeda 5GW effort (originally posted to Phatic Communion.)
Point being: we should perhaps not be altogether surprised that 5GWish events could emerge as options for states and and non-states within areas where multiple 4GW forces engage in conflict with one another. Some one of them, or several of them, might well be motivated to make the leap to x+1.
Sorry about that. I'd meant to cross post here but the original post was a last minute deal. I'll have it up here tonight.
Interesting bit of thought that came about in reading your AQ goes 5GW post. This snippet from A. al Z's letter:
"To improve the image of the resistance in society, increase the number of supporters who are refusing occupation and show the clash of interest between society and the occupation and its collaborators. To use the media for spreading an effective and creative image of the resistance."
5GW might well be the only gradient of warfare that one belligerent, looking to attain a single grand strategy (or not so grand strategy, perhaps) would wage on both it's enemy and its base. The base being, in the case of AQ, the Iraqi populace or in terms of a state endeavor, it's own populace.
No probs.
For me, the similarities between what you posted and the potential al-Qaeda 5GW plans revolve around the way all actors within a sphere might be used against each other. If the AQ letter was authentic, it showed that they were contemplating "expanding" the war by nudging various opponents to fight one another. E.g.,
&
& especially:
In fact, some analysts have questioned the purported anti-American focus of al-Qaeda, suggesting that AQ really has Shia Islam, and particularly Iran and Iran's allies, as their primary target (for now.)