Attacks on the ground and special forces
the real war of the allies

THE Modern STRATEGY contemplates war as a normal fact, without end, without a certain measure of victory or the threshold of capitulation. The bombings of these days in Libya, the rebels who fight and the civilians who escape are part of this normality, just as the disparity of forces in the field, the will to use them and the variety of positions expressed on the political-diplomatic level are normal. Once the responsibility for military operations is entrusted to someone else, in this case pretending that NATO is “another”, the war can continue with its normal rhythms. The concern is not Libya, but what to do with Gaddafi without overworking him too much. We must also not appear too grim or too armed, especially in intentions. President Obama said the America has no vital interests in Libya and everyone has joined them. Germany had already marched through a deadly blow to NATO, several other countries say they do not want to fight and Erdogan’s Turkey not only solemnly promised that it will never bomb the Libyan people but even wants to attribute to Gaddafi the thaumaturgical and cathartic virtue of directing Libya in the democratic transition against its own regime.

The French and the English seem inflexible in asking for the (metaphorical) head of the raìs, but they deal with all those able to dialogue with him. As politics celebrates its rituals, on the ground the war is getting more and more “normal”. No general has taken this war well either because of the disastrous precedents of the last twenty years or because of the nebulousness of political aims. The Pentagon has opposed since the first day, the French have bombed almost to the sly, the English girls have not shown their naked tits to incite the soldiers and the Italian generals have quickly taken refuge in the procedures of the NATO without taking the time to explain them good to our ministers. Yet the military part of the coalition and NATO continues with its attack plans and even adapts to an even more normal development of the fighting.

The rebels do not make it and their war takes place with the elastic: they advance by as much as the coalition forces allow, then go back, without haste. With the gradual elimination of Gaddafi’s anti-aircraft forces the Allied planes approach the ground, launch rockets and activate the gunboats flying for ground attacks: as is normal. The tale of humanitarian and unarmed patrolling has not yet begun and the anti-tank helicopters will soon have to intervene. While politics is produced in improbable painless options, on the ground the pains have yet to come especially if someone will think of besieging Tripoli. And normality will no longer suffice. Sunzi had theorized 2,500 years ago that war is made with the combination of normal and “special” forces, regular and irregular, overt and covert. The Chinese are now at home in Libya and should teach something, but they are dealing with oil and Sunzi’s princes have transferred them to the stock market.

In Libya, on the other hand, special and intelligence forces have infiltrated the best of the Western world of war: they identify targets, train rebels and even help militias because they never know. There are thousands of Gaddafi mercenaries and oil companies ready to change master, there are officials and generals ready to change flag. Many of them would know very well what to do with Gaddafi even without disturbing Sunzi. Libya belongs to the Mediterranean and the example of the special war is ancient also in Italy. Tripoli is like Troy: it will not fall until the simulacrum of its power, Gaddafi himself, will be in the city. Troy was besieged for a decade by “normal” forces but was conquered by the intelligence of two special warriors: Ulysses and Diomedes. Both protected by Athena (a sort of ancient tutelary NATO), they succeeded in stealing Palladio, the wooden simulacrum, without legs, which Athena had wanted in the features of Pallas, his Libyan friend accidentally killed by her during a simulated fight. Palladio had the property of protecting the city that held him and ended up in Troy when Athena had thrown him down from Olympus because he had smeared with the vaginal blood of Electra raped by Zeus. Troy would never have fallen until the simulacrum was in the city and Ulysses and Diomedes dressed as travelers entered the citadel and stole it. This was the premise to the next taking of the city with the famous wooden horse, another “special” idea. Gaddafi is now a simulacrum, above all of himself, with woody legs and human features approximated by the extravagances. But he still manages to protect the Libyan Troy. Waiting for a special intelligence.

(March 30, 2011)