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Revisiting Campaign ...

Identifying CG is crucial for the planner. For instance, Saddam was the
strategic CG for Iraq; his fall brought collapse of the Baath Party and finally the
Iraqi resistance. But, neutralizing strategic CG is difficult. It requires military,
political, diplomatic and media efforts concurrently. During Vietnam War, the
Vietcong was unable to neutralize the CG of the U.S Forces militarily. But the
Vietcong media demonstrated the atrocities of Mai Lai massacre and Napalm
bomb which ultimately affected the U.S CG, ie, their peoples’ support.

Decisive Points (DP). The CG is always guarded by capable DP. In naval
warfare, the high value command platform is always protected by the most
capable fighting ships. Even an unarmed Oil Tanker can also be a DP as it is
crucial for operational logistics. Hence, to inflict the enemy CG, we need to
neutralize the DPs. During Iraqi invasion, the U.S led forces delayed their
advance fearing the existence of Iraqi DPs, ie, the Iraqi mine fields and air
defence. But once the mine fields were cleared, the coalition advanced and
subsequently neutralized the air defence from the sea. Finally, they gradually
weakened the Iraqi strategic CG.
Lines of Operation (LOOP). Campaign plan designs the course of
actions to affect the CG. But, military LOOP alone cannot bring success. Before
Pearl Harbour attack, the Japanese pretended ‘Tokyo-Washington peaceful
negotiation’ in diplomatic LOOP, but at the same time attempted massive air
strike on military LOOP to destroy the U.S ships. In 1971 Liberation War, the
Bengali Mukti Bahini operated in military LOOP, gathered foreign recognition
in diplomatic LOOP and triggered the world humanity portraying genocide using
media LOOP. It was a people’s war which displayed the simultaneous and
well-orchestrated synergy amongst multiple LOOPs. In recent year, we have
observed how the ‘Trump-Kim’ diplomatic summit cooled down the probable
nuclear escalation. In future, facebook, twitter etc will be unpredictable in
conflict; diplomacy will be polarized by business conglomerates and
multinational stakeholders complicating the military planning process. So, the
planners have to take into account the social media and diplomacy while
designing the LOOPs.

Operational Pause (OP). Operational Commanders must cater pause to
re-appreciate the scenario. So, OP is not an operational weakness but a pause in
one line of operation while retaining initiatives in other LOOP. In such scenario,

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