[dadman]

the three levels of war link (http://counterpunch.org/lind05032003.html)

"Some senior American military officers and a number of military commentators are now saying that America's swift victory in the first phase of the war with Iraq shows that the U.S. armed forces have learned the lessons John Boyd tried to teach them. As someone who knew and worked with John Boyd, I have to say, not so fast. There is a lot less here than meets the eye."

[Pendragon]

http://www.belisarius.com/ is a very good site to help you understand Boyd and OODA/SEDA

Interestingly (to me only perhaps), when I was playing online team games, I could tel when we were getting looped by another team - I could intuitively understand that they were simply doing things faster than we could respond and I could see the chaos that came from that. Conversely, when we were winning, I could see us out respond our opponent (10 on 10 CTF).

Reading about Boyds theories helped me label and more fully understand what was happening. It also helped me understand what I needed to do to get out from under the losing side and to use this against our opponents. That website above helped me elevate a middle of the road team to one of the best teams playing in our league.

Patterns of Conflict, Art of War and On War - essential reading for any wanna be strategist :)

see also: www.sonshi.com

[Don Gwinn]

Some of the same generals who are now claiming that our initial victory in Iraq shows we have mastered John Boyd's theory feared and hated the real John Boyd. For them now to take Boyd's name in vain would not have made John happy.

Ain't that just always the way?