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The Other End of the Spear - The Tooth-to-Tail Ratio (T3R) in Modern Military Operations: The Long War Series Occasional Paper 23 (Paperback)
Loot Price: R320
Discovery Miles 3 200
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The Other End of the Spear - The Tooth-to-Tail Ratio (T3R) in Modern Military Operations: The Long War Series Occasional Paper 23 (Paperback)
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Loot Price R320
Discovery Miles 3 200
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
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John McGrath's The Other End of the Spear is a timely historical
analysis and an important follow-on work to his earlier analysis of
troop density trends in CSI Occasional Paper 16, Boots on the
Ground. As that work showed, this paper also shows the timeless
value of history and its relevance to current events. Boots on the
Ground analyzed the ratio between the numbers of troops employed in
military operations relative to the population in a number of
irregular conflicts. This study analyzes the composition of such
forces to answer the question: what have been the historical trends
in the ratio of deployed forces directly engaged in fighting,
relative to those engaged in noncombat functions? This ratio is
commonly, if inaccurately, called the "tooth-to-tail ratio."
McGrath's study finds that the tooth-to-tail ratio, among types of
deployed US forces, has steadily declined since World War II, just
as the nature of warfare itself has changed. At the same time, the
percentage of deployed forces devoted to logistics functions and to
base and life support functions have both increased, especially
with the advent of the large-scale of use of civilian contractors.
A segment of American military historians and policy makers has
long been enamored with a genre of military history that seeks to
quantify war, to reduce it to known variables, and to posit
solutions to future military conflicts based on mathematical
formulae. The practice of war contains a strong element of science,
but in the end, the practice of war is an art. This study cannot be
used to guarantee victory simply by composing a force of the
proportional figures presented in the conclusion. However, it does
provide a good baseline, based on historical precedent, for future
planning. This work, coupled with Boots on the Ground, provides a
unique analysis of the size and composition of military forces as
found in historical patterns. Policy makers, commanders, and staff
officers should use these two studies as a basis from which to
begin their analysis of the particular campaign at hand. They will
then need to apply their understanding of the objectives, the
nature of the conflict, and local and regional culture and
conditions to the analysis to create a winning military plan. It is
our belief at CSI that this kind of historical analysis will inform
and educate today's military and civilian leaders as they carry out
our nation's most important policies.
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