Back in August, we looked at John Robb’s theory of “Open Source warfare.” John, who runs the consistently great Global Guerrillas blog, expands on the idea in today’s Times.
First, out-innovating the insurgency will most likely prove unsuccessful. The insurgency uses an open-source community approach (similar to the decentralized development process now prevalent in the software industry) to warfare that is extremely quick and innovative. New technologies and tactics move rapidly from one end of the insurgency to the other, aided by Iraq’s relatively advanced communications and transportation grid — demonstrated by the rapid increases in the sophistication of the insurgents’ homemade bombs. This implies that the insurgency’s innovation cycles are faster than the American military’s slower bureaucratic processes (for example: its inability to deliver sufficient body and vehicle armor to our troops in Iraq).
Second, there are few visible fault lines in the insurgency that can be exploited. Like software developers in the open-source community, the insurgents have subordinated their individual goals to the common goal of the movement. This has been borne out by the relatively low levels of infighting we have seen between insurgent groups. As a result, the military is not going to find a way to chop off parts of the insurgency through political means — particularly if former Baathists are systematically excluded from participation in the new Iraqi state by the new Constitution.
Third, the United States can try to diminish the insurgency by letting it win. The disparate groups in an open-source effort are held together by a common goal. Once the goal is reached, the community often falls apart. In Iraq, the original goal for the insurgency was the withdrawal of the occupying forces. If foreign troops pull out quickly, the insurgency may fall apart. This is the same solution that was presented to Congress last month by our generals in Iraq, George Casey and John Abizaid.
Unfortunately, this solution arrived too late. There are signs that the insurgency’s goal is shifting from a withdrawal of the United States military to the collapse of the Iraqi government. So, even if American troops withdraw now, violence will probably continue to escalate.
What’s left? It’s possible, as Microsoft has found, that there is no good monopolistic solution to a mature open-source effort. In that case, the United States might be better off adopting I.B.M.‘s embrace of open source. This solution would require renouncing the state’s monopoly on violence by using Shiite and Kurdish militias as a counterinsurgency. This is similar to the strategy used to halt the insurgencies in El Salvador in the 1980’s and Colombia in the 1990’s. In those cases, these militias used local knowledge, unconstrained tactics and high levels of motivation to defeat insurgents (this is in contrast to the ineffectiveness of Iraq’s paycheck military). This option will probably work in Iraq too.
The situation seams very much close to a civil war than an insurgency against an occupying army.
Under this point of view comparing to the “open source” doesn’t have much sense.
Agreed, software is extemely simple compared to warfighters; to infer that taking down an VBIED cell is futile, as this article seems to (as the expertise is so widely distibuted) seems to rely on theory entirely too much.
I consistently enjoy John Robbs blog. I believe his thinking is the logical deliberation of the (in)famous Chinese book Unrestricted Warfare which outlined the future of conflicts and warfare for the XXI century.
Well, Ayman al Zawahiri just switched the goal right back to ousting the “Crusaders”. I guess he’s not in the open source network. Pity how some theories just lose their hoohaa so soon.
I dont necessarily agree with the comparison to open source software but I think he does sketch some of the important details of the IO. They are now rooted in a sheltering country. And we need some change in the dynamic for this to turn around.
If we continue on the current path insurgent attacks will just grow more effective and more numerous.
As for his characterization of the open source solution– while possibly effective– should remind us of the actual results-death squads. As bands of ‘highly motivated’ and effective militia does a little ethnic cleansing of ‘suspected insurgents’ and ‘insurgent sympathizers.‘
Great result.