Bright Brief – Maneuver Defense

Retreat is Not Always Defeat

It’s become something of a meme at Burning Bright to ask the rhetorical question, “Has Russia been in the news of late?”

And I see no reason to stop the trend now.

That said, today I only want to focus on Russia as a means of setting up a larger psychological and tactical concept I want to discuss … that being the strategy of Maneuver Defense.

Applying this war tactic to the Actual battlefield is apt this week, as, directly preceding and directly following Russia’s referenda (thank you to Patrick Gunnels for cluing me in as to the correct plural form of ‘referendum,’) you probably realized that, quite coincidentally, the Media Industrial Complex was mobilized in a fresh demoralization campaign against … who exactly? Russian nationalists who don’t listen to them anyway? Russia sympathizers in the west?

Perhaps more likely, the Media’s attempt to paint Russia as in any way ‘losing’ the ongoing Special Military Operation in eastern Ukraine is just an attempt to cling to an EU-centric and western hegemonic paradigm that Putin has spent the better part of the year eradicating, along with whatever kinetic might the Azov battalion and other proxy forces wield in the muddy mires—soon to freeze, much to Russia’s delight—in the Donbas.

While I am no military expert, and the intent behind most Burning Bright posts is not to delve in detail into the nuances of kinetic war strategy and tactics, I do think we can learn a lot both by observing the Narrative Deployments of the Media Industrial Complex and by formulating logical counters to said deployments.

In this case, the Media’s premise is simple: Russia has ceded ground to an advancing counter-offensive in northeastern Ukraine, with their faux annexation of the Donbas merely a political and cultural face-saving attempt at best and an act of desperation at worse, as they have apparently bitten off significantly more than they can chew when it comes to the stunning and brave mercenaries parading as nationalist liberators sporting the yellow trident almost as often as the Black Sun.

(For more on Nazi allusions, both real and figurative in the Ukrainian theater, I recommend a detour into Righteous Russia – Part 6.)

If we attempt to take a good-faith approach to analyzing the above supposition, we can grant the Media Industrial Complex the first point—that being that Russian forces have ceded physical ground to a counter push by flagging Ukrainian outfits. Of course, the reason for doing so is where we find significant and even dramatic disagreement.

According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation itself, what we are witnessing in the Donbas on a tactical level is likely an example of Maneuver Defense, a kinetic and logistical war strategy described as follows by their own War Manual:

Maneuver defense [манёвренная оборона] is a tactical and operational form of defense whose goal is to inflict enemy casualties, gain time and preserve friendly forces with the potential loss of territory. It is conducted, as a rule, when there are insufficient forces and means available to conduct a positional defense. 

This differs from the U.S. concept of the mobile defense, which “is a type of defensive operation that concentrates on the destruction or defeat of the enemy through a decisive attack by a striking force. It focuses on destroying the attacking force by permitting the enemy to advance into a position that exposes him to counterattack and envelopment. The commander holds most of his available combat power in a striking force for his decisive operation, a major counterattack. He commits the minimum possible combat power to his fixing force that conducts shaping operations to control the depth and breadth of the enemy’s advance. The fixing force also retains the terrain required to conduct the striking force’s decisive counterattack.”

While I personally reject the prospect that Russia lacks the “forces and means available to conduct a positional defense,” this tactic can also be used when Russian commanders prefer to wage a war of attrition, forcing the enemy to retake ground and expend significant martial and logistical supplies and munitions in the act of doing so, all while the Russian forces bend backward without breaking and set a reinforced perimeter that often resembles a partial encirclement of the ‘ceded area,’ from which Russian artillery can destroy probing counter-forces.

We have seen this tactic employed since the start of the Special Military Operation in February, as Russian contract forces—an important distinction we will touch on in a moment—have continually pushed the enemy back only to evacuate civilians from disputed areas, cede those areas back to the ‘defending’ force, and then deploy mid-range munitions against the re-occupying forces.

Aside from being used out of necessity under circumstances in which the Russian line lacks sufficient manpower or supplies to hold in the face of greater opposing force, this strategy is most often used as a means of taking metropolitan areas without permanent and catastrophic damage being done to both the civilian population and the infrastructure of the place itself.

Here, we see a logical defense against accusations sometimes levied at folks like me for taking everything Vladimir Putin and ‘Russian apologists’ say at face value, while rejecting the statements of the opposed Globalist class.

While I undoubtedly have a significant bias against factions I see as Globalist-aligned, I do attempt to apply Bicameral Thinking to my analysis, and suggest you do as well.

That said, a close reading of the above strategy fully matches Putin’s stated intentions and goals for the Special Military Operation before and after it was actioned.

The words and stated intentions of a given faction need not always be taken at face value, but when their resultant and ongoing actions match those stated intentions, we have a glove that fits, so to speak, and can then lend more credence and weight to future proclamations by that faction in the ongoing theater, both kinetic and psychological.

The same cannot be said for the Globalist factions from the EU to the US State Department, whose narratives seem to shift as often as the wind in an almost-comical contrast to Russia’s steady, consistent stance, both narratively and Actually.

In summary, from a tactical level, the Russian strategy of Maneuver Defense often looks like losing right up until it transforms into a phase of active and very rapid winning.

I believe the successful referenda and stated intent to annex the Donbas (more than 15% of terrestrial Ukrainian territory,) into the Russian Federation are potent signals that said transition is already taking place, as is the fact that, until now, the ‘fighting’ forces deployed into the Donbas by Putin have consisted almost entirely of contract soldiers, NOT the Russian army itself, which has yet to be mobilized.

If I may connect this Maneuver Defense concept as a bridge to the western theater of the ongoing war between Globalism and Sovereignty, I believe patriots such as Donald Trump and his allies have been using a psychological and administrative version of Maneuver Defense in order to optically distance themselves from necessary operations—from the planned demolition of the fiat Central Banking system and petrodollar to the bare and stark exposure of the Establishment in US politics—while ensuring that their munitions of the narrative, political and even legal variety are well-positioned for the eventual counter-offensive.

I believe Devolution provides a mechanism through which to cede this political and societal ground to the ‘occupying force,’ in the US being the ‘winners’ of the 2020 disputed election, just as I believe the ensuing and eventual counter-push will be swift, cascading and definitive as it concerns the exposure of enemy positions—in the government, media, entertainment and larger economy—and the removal or compromising of said positions.

This overall strategy is why I often posit that the first Trump term was a somewhat ‘defensive’ term, in that it primed the public both for what could be possible with a Sovereign, America First Government while serving to expose the enemies of that vision for classic American freedom and idealism. I consider the ongoing ‘Biden Administration,’ to be a necessary and allowed—overtly or covertly—disclosure operation in itself, with patriots having ceded strategic territory to advance long-term and permanent objectives, among them being the exponential Narrative Whiplash being experienced by an increasingly-awakened and aware populace.

What’s more, this reading of events both on the ground and over the proverbial airways in this ongoing Strange War suggests that, where it concerns true disclosure, exposure and push-back, the (metaphorical) artillery has not yet begun to rain down over the positions of our embedded adversaries.

In short, I believe patriots have allowed enemy factions to believe they are winning, when all they are doing is exposing themselves to the American people while a groundswell of America First sentiment builds with every damaging Narrative Deployment and attempted economic and political decree launched by our would-be Controllers.

From where I’m sitting, from both Russia’s standpoint in the ongoing kinetic war against the Globalist proxy forces in Ukraine and on the US side, where it concerns Manchurian candidates and those who support them, much of [their] Potential ammunition has been spent, while our side has ceded temporary ground while gaining the public mandate that will be necessary to reunify and raise up this nation to the heights it deserves.  

The ground has never been more fertile and the enemy’s narrative territory never stretched so thin as it is now, from the economy to international tensions. Just as the physical ground in the east is only just beginning to harden on its way to a deep freeze that will allow Russia to maneuver with the confidence and efficiency only She can, the Narrative ground in the Collective Mind is also hardening.

What an encouraging prospect for us.

What a fearful prospect for [them.]

Until next time, stay Positive, stay Based and most importantly … stay Bright.

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