On January 6, 2008, five Iranian gunboats swarmed three US Navy ships passing in international waters through the Straits of Hormuz, coming to within 200 yards, issuing threatening radio communications, and launching objects into the water that could have been mines. This was a classic hazushi play – testing how much of his sleeve and lapel a much bigger opponent will allow you to grab before he responds.
tomoe1
Consider the judo throw.2
First, it's kuzushi. Subtly, you test your opponent in small, almost imperceptible actions: a touch here, a tiny pull there. You watch his moves, reflexes and recovery ability. You bide your time, looking for the opening. Your intuition is at work here, not your strength or technique. When the right moment comes, you convert the opponent's slightest error into tipping him off balance.
Then, it's tsukuri. That is when preparedness meets opportunity. You now have to have acquired the skill and the speed to convert your opponent's momentary imbalance into control of his momentum. Using techniques involving pulling, tripping, twisting, spinning, hoisting, you now load the opponent for the throw.
Lastly, you apply the kinetic energy equation you have built. The opponent is at your mercy now; it's up to you whether to kill him or just to give him a tumble. You throw. That is kake.
And that is the structure of reality. The master judoka must study and respect the laws of gravitational reality. So, we contend, must the leader of men. Whatever one thinks of reality, however ideal one's plans for improving upon gravity, it's useless, unless one has a death wish.
Now, consider recent American projections of power. We finally have a master of "soft" fighting leading our forces in Iraq. He may not know the Japanese terminology, but he does know the ancient wisdom of the dynamics of fighting. So does, in so many ways, to our detriment, the Russian president – and judo black belt — Vladimir Putin.3 It's not so, however, with the US Navy in the Straits of Hormuz.
On January 6, 2008, five Iranian gunboats swarmed three US Navy ships passing in international waters through the Straits of Hormuz, coming to within 200 yards, issuing threatening radio communications, and launching objects into the water that could have been mines. According to US officials, when the US ships heard the radio threats, they manned their gun positions and officers were “in the process” of giving the order to fire – but then the Iranians abruptly turned away.
This episode would stink even to a fresh brown-belt. On the face of it – and one can hardly ever know more than that – this was an awful error by weak-kneed ‘rules of engagement’ fools in Washington who either restrained the Navy's captains preemptively, or in media res, during the action. For Iranian gunboats cavorting within shouting distance from the US Navy don't do so at random.
This was a classic hazushi play – testing how much of his sleeve and lapel a much bigger opponent will allow you to grab before he responds. It's a premeditated experiment, whose lessons will be applied by the Iranians for further aggression – the "throw" that will cost the lives of who knows how many US sailors and marines in the future.
In the martial arts – and running a Navy ship is presumably a martial art – there is a concept of maai, 'critical distance.' Friends who know something about naval warfare advise that the maai for a naval vessel is at least 1,000 yards, preferably 2,000. Enemy vessels that have penetrated this zone to within 200 yards from US Navy assets have managed to not only offset our balance, but also to complete the next, all-important stage, the 'loading' for a 'throw.' In other words, at 200 yards and going full speed, it was entirely their call whether to ram at least one US ship, kamikaze-style, and our "manning the guns," or even shooting, would no longer have been able to stop it. It's inexcusable, when we have already been "thrown" so badly before in tactically comparable circumstances: the USS Cole; Aden; October 2000.
A Navy whose survival instincts have not been infected by the rampant virus eating the soul and increasingly the flesh of the West, responds to five enemy gunboats rushing it by blowing them out of the water when they are, at the closest, 999 yards away. To let them within 200 yards is suicidal meekness and an invitation to future provocations. And so, the Navy's disclosure on 1/11/08 that in a similar, earlier incident the USS Whidbey Island had fired warning shots is just PR smokescreen for the January blunder, for it does not mention the all-important variable: the distance between the respective navies at which our shooting commenced.
As Col. Ralph Peters wrote in a fine piece analyzing this incident, "[T]he Iranians think several moves ahead of us: We play checkers, they play chess."
Or, as I would say, the US Navy and the entire West behave, with few exceptions, as though we were in a debating committee about the Marquess of Queensberry rules of boxing. We are, however, we always have been, in a street fight.
Endnotes
1. Tomoe, meaning 'Circular,' is a symbol of the energy dynamics in the Japanese martial arts, and visualizes a famous jujutsu throw, tomoe nage. It is also a samurai family crest.
2. Judo – "the way of softness," is the grappling sport developed from a partial inventory of the non-lethal holds, throws and pins contained in the more comprehensive, ancient, and lethal martial art of jujutsu. Anyone who studied even judo for six months knows that "softness" is a relative term.
3. So did Hillary's erstwhile and Barack Hussein's virtual mentor, Saul Alinsky, as observed in Kyle-Anne Shiver's "Obama's Alinsky Jujitsu."
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/01/obamas_alinsky_jujitsu.html
Mr. Seiyo
Jujitsu is a fine art, but it does not beat a 44 Magnum, nor Rope-a-Dope. I fear you have made the same error that Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto made. Who is to say who is testing whom? Maybe you would like to try out your argument on Saddam, Uday, or Qusay.
To Comrade Ivanovich,
My friend, you have mistaken the signifier for the signified, you have mixed and made a hash of ‘metaphor,’ ‘simile,’ ‘metonymy’ and ‘allegory.’ You have to do a lot more reading before you are ready to start writing and posting.
Now, the raison d’etre for a website with the word “Intellectual” on its masthead is – I presume here – to foster intellectual debate. And there is valid criticism to be made of my piece. For instance, a battle in the Straits of Hormuz might have led to such a spike in the price of oil that the US would have been crippled. Don’t think for a moment that the Iranians are oblivious to this. Still, with this sort of price to pay, even risking US Navy lives and assets may be necessary, and you and I, at our rung on the ladder, are ill equipped to make that call.
To address two of your salient points, you should recognize that Iran is in the process of building its 44 Magnum, while we are humming “Don’t Worry, be Happy.” And if you believe that it’s a smart policy to test the Iranian Navy the way we tested Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto at Pearl Harbor, I wish to take exception.
Lastly, do I detect a whiff of, uhm — I don’t know how to put it delicately — racism in your post? I don’t mind, truly; the obsession with racism as though it were the greatest sin is destroying our country. Still, it’s sub-par thinking.
Dear Takuan
Thank you for your reasoned response to my challenge. Last things first. Yes, there may be a touch of racism in my words. It comes, I suppose, from the first two years of life when my father joined the US Navy in 1944 and crossed the International Date Line on July 28, 1945 heading east aboard and LST. Little did he know that the Enola Gay would end the war within 10 days. But I think you mistake my words as disrespect when I have only the deepest regard for someone like Yamamoto who said “”I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” I think the Islamists have not heeding his words, to their own peril. On the other hand I have the greatest respect for individuals of all creeds and origins and my only objection to your article is that you seem to be making a call even though you now say “, and you and I, at our rung on the ladder, are ill equipped to make that call.” And by making this uninformed call you show disrespect for the USN, my President, and the American people in general. The last may deserve your scorn, but they were not there, so I will reserve judgment.
You do my work with your comment “…a battle in the Straits of Hormuz might have led to such a spike in the price of oil that the US would have been crippled.” This is exactly why I defer to those on the bridge.
I’ll ignore your first attack for now and I’ll take your salutation as a complement of brotherhood.
Dear Ivanovich,
Thanks for your input here. There are even more points that could be raised in defense of our tactics v. Iranian Navy, but you are wrong in assuming that criticism of the USN or POTUS, or even the American people is wrong and disrespectful per se. That is the Iranian or Chinese attitude, and not the American way.
You defer to those on the bridge when you are under their command, in uniform. To defer to them otherwise is akin to trusting your 1st doctor’s diagnosis, or executing your financial advisor’s recommendation that you put all your nest egg into this one penny stock that will surely shoot the moon.
You may not have all of their information and training, but you should have your common sense, and basic wisdom, which they sometimes abandon.
Ever heard of the lions led by donkeys of World War 1? Field-Marshal Douglas Haig rings a bell? Charge of the Light Brigade? Did you not, like I, grind your teeth when “your president” crowed on TV “Mission Accomplished” when it had barely begun?
BTW, the scenario of letting Iranian gunboats penetrate our critical distance because of “oil squeeze” considerations is, in itself, proof how inept our strategic thinking and execution has been. Not in naval matters, mind you, but in energy policies of the last 40 years.
Never suspend you brain, Ivanovich. Not even for POTUS.
Mr. Seiyo
I would like to retract my tacit admission of racism as on second thought I can see that with your “In our Face” name, your reference to a Japanese martial art, and your persistent criticism of our President and our military you deserved my negative appraisal of your work and my disparaging reference to Yamamoto regardless of your race.
Your comments such as “You have to do a lot more reading before you are ready to start writing and posting”; “Still, it’s sub-par thinking”; and “Never suspend you brain” are ad hominem and without honor so this will be my last post on this subject.
BTW: The Charge of the Light Brigade was the Brits, and NO, I did not grit my teeth over Mission Accomplished. Now take this crap over to the Daily KOS, and all the other Bush Bashers, where it belongs. I don’t need your skinny ass telling me what it is to be American.