Compass Points - Weapon of Wonder
Mysterious forces at the center of it all.
Compass Points - Weapon of Wonder
Mysterious forces at the center of it all.
July 25, 2023
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The Marine Corps has two versions of its foundational publication, Warfighting. There is the original version, FMFM - 1 Warfighting and the updated version MCDP - 1 Warfighting. More than 80% of the two versions are identical. Besides mostly minor updates, however, there is one substantial difference between the two. What is the difference? One way to understand the difference, as strange as it seems, is to go see the new movie, Oppenheimer.
The movie, Oppenheimer, in theaters now, is two stories told over the course of three hours. The first story is an inspiring tale of human invention and achievement. The second story is a sordid tale of human jealousy, politics, and revenge.
Both stories focus on Robert J. Oppenheimer, the US scientist widely regarded as the father of the atomic bomb. On July 16, 1945, on a desolate testing site in New Mexico, the very first atomic bomb was detonated. The early technology was used to end World War II. Then, across nearly eight decades, more advanced nuclear weapons on ships, under sea, on planes, and atop missiles in underground silos have prevented World War III.
From its inception, the intricate and astounding atomic bomb has been a weapon of wonder. Today, the US nuclear arsenal is both a powerful weapon of war and a powerful weapon of peace. World War I was horrible. World War II was worse. But, thanks to nuclear deterrence, World War III has never happened.
The exponential spark of nuclear weapons springs from the mysterious quantum forces at the inner most level of the universe.
In 1927 German physicist Werner Heisenberg, studying sub-atomic particles, created his uncertainty principle. The principle postulates that the human ability to know with certainty is limited and uncertainty rules the universe. Heisenberg's theories and those of many others are at the heart of atomic weapons and also at the heart of Marine Corps philosophy of maneuver warfare.
The theories of non-linearity, chaos, and uncertainty inspired by Heisenberg were much later transformed by John Boyd into critical insights about war.
Instead of a simplistic, linear, and mechanistic way of warfighting, the Marine Corps defeats the enemy by using combined arms, fire and maneuver, and maneuver warfare. Maneuver warfare is not a weapons system, it is a philosophy, a way of understanding the unpredictability, chaos, and uncertainty at the heart of the universe and at the heart of war, and then using that understanding to defeat any foe.
In his Foreword to MCDP - 1, USMC Commandant, General Charles Krulak said he had many reasons for updating FMFM – 1, chief among them the need to, "emphasize war’s complexity and unpredictability."
Warfighting can never be tamed, neutered, or simplified. War is chaotic, non-linear, complex, unpredictable, and uncertain. Understanding the uncertainty of war allows Marines to see and exploit opportunity in a way other forces cannot. It is like using night vision goggles to see in the dark.
From Werner Heisenberg to John Boyd, from FMFM - 1 to MCDP - 1, the Marine Corps matches the complex nature of war with a complex Marine Corps ecology of organization, equipment, training, tradition, ethos, and esprit.
Imagine if someone could reach into the inner workings of a nuclear weapon, tamper with the intricate source of power, and pull-out pieces and parts. It would ruin the explosive power. If anyone did that, they would have rendered the weapon of wonder inoperable. They would have drained it of its power to do good. They would have taken away its power for war and its power for peace.
The Marine Corps, in its own way, is a weapon of wonder. It is a weapon of war and a weapon of peace. It is intricate and astounding.
Imagine if someone were to reach into the inner workings of the Marine Corps, tamper with the intricate source of power, and pull-out pieces and parts. It would corrupt and cancel the explosive power of the Corps. Misguided tinkerers should never be allowed to degrade the power of the USMC. Tampering with the inner workings of the Marine Corps leads to weakness in war.
Although the Marine Corps is renowned for its exploits in combat, for every day the Marine serves in combat as a weapon of war, the Marine Corps serves 100 days as a weapon of peace. As a weapon of peace, the Marine Corps is used to assist those in need, as well as to deter bad actors, and hostile actions.
Whether with nuclear weapons or with the Marine Corps, the deterrence message is simple, "Change your behavior or in an instant, we will send to you a whirlwind of fire, a hell-storm of destruction." That deterrence warning helps preserve the peace.
The message of the movie Oppenheimer is there are mysterious forces, at the center of the universe. What is true for nuclear weapons is true for the Marine Corps. There are mysterious forces at the center of the Marine Corps. No-one can reach in and tamper with the inner workings of the Marine Corps. To do so risks destroying the power on which deterrence depends.
Oppenheimer is a movie worth seeing, but no-one needs to be a world-famous scientist to understand that the always ready, always relevant, always capable Marine Corps strengthens friends and deters foes around the globe.
Compass Points salutes all those, throughout the broad Marine Corps community and in Congress, working to restore the fully capable, combined arms, fire and maneuver, maneuver warfare Corps of Marines.
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Universal Pictures
Oppenheimer
https://www.universalpictures.com/movies/oppenheimer
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US Marine Corps
MCDP - 1 Warfighting
(See the end-notes for insightful sources about war, maneuver warfare, and MCDP - 1)
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Goodreads
In Search of Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality
By John Gribbin
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23481724-in-search-of-schr-dinger-s-cat
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John Boyd Homepage
Understanding War
https://www.colonelboyd.com/understanding-war
Just curious - why aren’t articles attributed to authors? Thanks.
The fact the 38th Commandant in his Planning Guidance referenced only the FMFM 1 edition of Warfighting offers strong evidence that he and those who assisted him in writing the guidance failed to grasp the significance of changes to MCDP 1, that is, a deeper understanding of the inherent chaos and complexity of warfare. This is likely why Force Design 2030 has such a narrow focus; those who developed the concept thought mechanistically rather than holistically. FMFM 1 is an historically important document because it introduced the Marine Corps to maneuver warfare. MCDP 1, however, is the document Marines today need to consult because it places the maneuver warfare approach in a nonlinear (chaotic) context. It is also truer to the wisdom Clausewitz expressed in his opus, On War. See the information at https://www.clausewitz.com/mobile/cwzcomplx.htm