Phase Zero: Undermining America
The military services spend countless hours planning against a multitude of contingencies. They do so in phases. Phase 1 is the run-up to hostilities, Phase 2 includes preparations for onset of military action, Phase 3 is major combat, Phase 4 is post-conflict stabilization, and Phase 5 is the return to civilian control.
So, what is Phase Zero?
Working to alleviate the conditions that lead to war in the first place is Phase Zero. Those pre-conflict situations that lead to conflict like “eliminating the roots of instability and terrorism in the world’s most dysfunctional countries.” [i] Or, deliberately undermining a nation state.
What if a country were to pursue a deliberate policy of infiltrating, over time, dangerous drugs (chemicals) into another country that results in widespread death, like Fentanyl? [ii] And, what about a country that develops and then deploys an airborne pathogen like COVID-19 that results in over 6 million deaths worldwide. [iii] Would these conditions constitute a deliberate attack on another state or states?
What would motivate a state to do such a thing that would potentially invite war?
In 2003, Chinese defense minister, General Chi Haotian, delivered a secret speech to high-level Community Party Cadres [iv]. His speech made the case for war against the United States in stark terms. “The relationship between China and the United Sates is one of life-and-death struggle.” The United States has a small population and plentiful arable land that the Chinese need to ensure their survival. China covets our arable land. They have 1.4 billion people in an area about the size of the United States that has only 330 million people. It should come as no surprise that China is buying land in the United States and purchasing food processing plants. General Haotian writes that in the event of war, “we are not as foolish as to want to perish together with America by using nuclear weapons … Only by using non-destructive weapons that can kill many people will we be able to reserve America for ourselves … if our biological weapons succeed in a surprise attack, the Chinese people will be able to keep their losses at a minimum in the fight against the United States. [v]
This philosophy of war tracks with the ancient Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu who said:
- “Generally, in war the best policy is to take a state intact, ruin is inferior to this.
- For to win a one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.
- Those skilled in war subdue the enemy’s army without battle. They capture his cities without assaulting them and overthrow the state without protracted operations.
- Your aim must be to take All-under-Heaven intact. Thus your troops are not worn out and your gains will be complete. This is the art of offensive strategy.”[vi]
General Haotian states that Chinese have always worshipped sages, and that’s because they do not worship any God. Sun Tzu is a sage. His treatise The Art of War, is celebrated by most militaries in the world. I do not think the Chinese want to engage the United States in a shooting war. They are patient. I believe they will pursue policies that will help us destroy ourselves. They will continue to infiltrate our institutions, buy our land and the means of production; and they will continue to steal our intellectual property. Unless we develop policies to prevent these self-destructive policies, they will eventually win, and we will lose.
[i] https://www.cgdev.org/blog/phase-zero-pentagons-latest-big-idea
[ii] Over 150 people die every day from overdoses related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl: https://www.cdc.gov/stopoverdose/fentanyl/index.html
[iii] Globally, as of 6:22pm CEST, 3 August 2022, there have been 577,018,226 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 6,401,046 deaths, reported to WHO: https://covid19.who.int/ In the United States COVID deaths are just over 1 million.
[iv] https://jrnyquist.blog/2019/09/11/the-secret-speech-of-general-chi-haotian/
[v] https://jrnyquist.blog/2019/09/11/the-secret-speech-of-general-chi-haotian/ pages, 18-21. vi Sun Tzu, The Art of War, translated and with introduction by Samuel B. Griffith, pp 77-79. Sun Tzu’s essays on “The Art of War” written over 2000 years ago, form the earliest known writing on the subject. B.H. Liddle Hart in his foreword notes that Sun Tzu’s writings “might well be termed the concentrated essence of wisdom on the conduct of war.
