The Blitzkrieg

 "Sooner or later we all sit down to a banquet of consequences." Robert Louis Stevenson (Old Mortality 1884)

The wise words of Stevenson will undoubtedly be ignored by the current crusaders in and around the White House locus of power. Self-reflection is not in their DNA.

The current methods of the Trump administration is remarkably similar to a "blitzkrieg", the German term employed in our relatively recent past by Adolf Hitler. The tactic had also been used by Alexander the Great, among others to achieve success on the battlefield - at least initially. The intent of a blitzkrieg is to execute lightning fast attacks to surprise and overwhelm the enemy - which, in principle, would lead to an equally swift victory.

Imbedded in the concept of Blitzkrieg is another applicable principle of warfare called Schwerpunkt or “centre of gravity”. This principle advanced by the famous historian of warfare, Carl Von Clausewitz, advocated for concentrating effort of attack on key centres of enemy activity to once and for all eliminate opposition.   https://www.britannica.com/topic/blitzkrieg

However, since Trump and his narrow and mentally limited lieutenants have no knowledge or appreciation for the lessons of ancient and recent history, they may have overlooked the importance of Schwerpunkt in achieving the outcomes they desire as their Blitzkrieg is undertaken without consideration of the finer points of its execution.

The most important lesson that has been ignored is that when blitzkrieg is advanced while executing a war on several fronts it, lacks the concentrated effort required to overwhelm the enemy. In other words, it is a tactic doomed to failure as resources are dispersed to fight on every front. 

This is the position that the US administration will find itself in soon, if it has not reached that point already. Taking on every aspect of American society, every structure in government, as well as the mainstream media while waging a trade war with every nation - and expecting to "negotiate" trade agreements with all of them - will cause the strategy to implode, just as Hitler found as his scattered advances started to fail and resistance began to build.

There is a growing, covert and overt resistance within the civil service among those that remain under the tutelage of the disrespected and incompetent departmental leaders. The mainstream American media is beginning to step out of its stupors in an attempt to counter the slant portrayed by the purveyors of "alternate facts". A large segment of the American public is becoming restive as demonstrated by the declining popularity of the President.

All that needs to happen is for the growing resistance to coalesce around the abject failures of the current administration to deliver on the outlandish promises it has made to Americans and stumble in all the fronts it has chosen to attack. Then the momentum will then collapse.

This will take time. How and when the resistance will build enough strength to alter the current trajectory of the battle is difficult to determine. But you can be certain that there are many people trying to figure that out.

In the meantime, our own resistance must get off the ground immediately after the our Canadian election. The promises made my those vying for power in our country must not hesitate to act with dispatch on a concentrated effort on a few matters that will redress our vulnerability to future challenges to our economic and strategic well-being.

While the current US government will eventually face the consequences of their actions, foisted on their domestic institutions as well as the geo-political landscape, we must seize the opportunity act decisively during the disruption or face negative consequences by inaction. 

I will suggest that the first area of concentration should be in our northern most Arctic regions - the subject of a following blog.