Woo Hoo! New Whittle!!

 

Did you get your Whittle in today?

1. This is EXCELLENT! It spoke to me, not least because I have been swordfighting for nearly 25 years (I do medieval reenactment), my muscles themselves know the difference between a mace and a rapier. For that matter, I’ve taken several opponents to the cleaners over the years because they tried to apply the techniques of one to the other.
   On the other hand, “taking tanks into a city is suicide” made me think of a horrible little trick I used to pull on fighters who didn’t know my style. My long time favorite weapon has been the bastard sword, most often used two handed. Yes, an opponent with a true two-handed sword has a range advantage on me… but I have a speed advantage on him. Regardless, I spent a long time taking advantage of an old doctrine which states that a two-handed swordsman is an unarmed man once you get close. True enough… *if*, and only if, you try to hit him in the FRONT. If you block his blade as you close to *intimate* (can smell his breath and count the veins in his eyeballs) range, you’ve just set yourself up to give him a backhanded swing to the back of his skull, delivered from a blade he never even got to SEE.
   I’ve never flown, so I can understand the OODA loop as applied to dogfighting only intellectually, I can’t feel it in my gut. But I have held for over 2 decades now that the easiest way to kill an enemy is to allow him to *think* he knows what you’re about to do. In other words, follow the usual, predictable, standard way of doing things *just long enough* for your opponent to expect you to continue to do so. In single combat tactics it’s known as “programming your opponent”.
   Gen. Petraeus sounds very much like the man who taught me swordplay those many years ago. It’s a great comfort to know someone like him is in command, as such people tend to be a very nasty surprise for anyone who faces them. Now if only the politicians and the press would stop jogging his elbow… wish us luck on that one.

   Posted by GrumpyOldFart       01/07/2008  at  06:24 AM  

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