Kinetic Action, Frenetic Retraction
There's been some confusion around the recent employment of military jargon to describe the current combat operations in Libya. This blogger has a humorous take on this and past "dumbass names" -- and one link to the blog notes "I Was Anti-War in Libya Until I Realized it was a Kinetic Military Action:" I malreported doubleplus ungood bellyfeel about war in Libya. Now that I fullwise blackwhite the dayorder form Minipax that we have always been at Kinetic Military Action with Libya I am goodthinking about it.
It's almost as if "kinetic action" is being used by the administration because "war" or "combat" are too distasteful. But in fact, the term "kinetic" applied to military operations is not new, though it's hardly common in public discussion of military action. Perhaps a look at an article describing the terms from several years ago would help. At the time (2007), the article noted the potential for confusion, and suggested that the terms "kinetic" and "non-kinetic" were poor choices to replace "lethal" and "non-lethal." Also, the terms are used in the military in two entirely different contexts -- and in each case there is room for confusion.
Weapons can be kinetic or non-kinetic -- but the plain "physics" sense of this is not applied. Lasers and other directed energy weapons (i.e. not kinetic in nature) are usually (but not always!) lumped in with kinetic weapons -- and rubber bullets, despite being a kinetic device, are sometimes excluded.
With regard to military action, "kinetic actions" are ones involving at least the possibility of lethal force, and non-kinetic actions (such as psychological operations) are separated out. But "kinetic" means "moving" or "pertaining to motion" -- and even psychological operations certainly involve motion.
With regard to the difference between kinetic and non-kinetic operations in Iraq, this interview with Major General Richard A Huck, Commanding General of the 2nd Marine Division in Anbar Province addresses it:The kinetic piece is checkers, the stabilization and reconstruction piece is chess… We are in what is called phase four [of the counterinsurgency operations], stabilization and security is the hardest part. Colonel Stephen Davis has described the reconstruction phase as “playing chess on a fourteen level board.” Both state the Marines, soldiers, airmen and navy personnel in their command are well prepared to deal with this transition.
Incidentally, this use of kinetic by President Obama has nothing to do with the words-to-video Kinetic Typography system that was used for amusing effect to commemorate a moment when a tired Candidate Obama really needed a Teleprompter.
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It's almost as if "kinetic action" is being used by the administration because "war" or "combat" are too distasteful. But in fact, the term "kinetic" applied to military operations is not new, though it's hardly common in public discussion of military action. Perhaps a look at an article describing the terms from several years ago would help. At the time (2007), the article noted the potential for confusion, and suggested that the terms "kinetic" and "non-kinetic" were poor choices to replace "lethal" and "non-lethal." Also, the terms are used in the military in two entirely different contexts -- and in each case there is room for confusion.
Weapons can be kinetic or non-kinetic -- but the plain "physics" sense of this is not applied. Lasers and other directed energy weapons (i.e. not kinetic in nature) are usually (but not always!) lumped in with kinetic weapons -- and rubber bullets, despite being a kinetic device, are sometimes excluded.
With regard to military action, "kinetic actions" are ones involving at least the possibility of lethal force, and non-kinetic actions (such as psychological operations) are separated out. But "kinetic" means "moving" or "pertaining to motion" -- and even psychological operations certainly involve motion.
With regard to the difference between kinetic and non-kinetic operations in Iraq, this interview with Major General Richard A Huck, Commanding General of the 2nd Marine Division in Anbar Province addresses it:The kinetic piece is checkers, the stabilization and reconstruction piece is chess… We are in what is called phase four [of the counterinsurgency operations], stabilization and security is the hardest part. Colonel Stephen Davis has described the reconstruction phase as “playing chess on a fourteen level board.” Both state the Marines, soldiers, airmen and navy personnel in their command are well prepared to deal with this transition.
Incidentally, this use of kinetic by President Obama has nothing to do with the words-to-video Kinetic Typography system that was used for amusing effect to commemorate a moment when a tired Candidate Obama really needed a Teleprompter.
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