C2 FOR HYBRID WAR: THE MARINES PREPARING FOR COMBAT ... Counter-insurgency warfare has been the dominant template dominating U.S military engagements for more than a decade. Joint warfare has been largely defined in terms of the air and naval services supporting the ground forces doing COIN ... In a recent article by Francis Tusa, the age of COIN has been decisively replaced by the demands of what he refers to as hybrid warfare, or his version of what the Marines used to call the Three Block War. How much more hybrid can you get than the current situation over Syria? – SLD: Second Line of Defense

Dominant Social Theme: It's coming, yes, it's coming. War is coming. That's the reality. And we have strategic choices to make. We have to figure out how to fight it. Because it's coming. And we need to prosecute it. Because it's almost here. Semper fi!

Free-Market Analysis: This is indeed an earnest blog, written for personnel involved with military actions. There is an almost palpable delight in the elucidation of various strategies that might be employed in the upcoming Syrian war.

Notice how our excerpt concludes, with the question, "How much more hybrid can you get?" Is this what excites the authors – the genesis of a new Marine battle order, a new way of doing things ... a hybrid way?

COIN stands for counter-insurgency operations but COIN is now old-fashioned. Instead, Marines will be returning to a "three-block war" concept (one that will use simultaneous strategies). Here, from Wikipedia:

The Three Block War is a concept described by U.S. Marine General Charles Krulak in the late 1990s to illustrate the complex spectrum of challenges likely to be faced by Marines on the modern battlefield.

In Krulak's example, Marines may be required to conduct full scale military action, peacekeeping operations and humanitarian aid within the space of three contiguous city blocks. The thrust of the concept is that modern militaries must be trained to operate in all three conditions simultaneously ...

There are no big socio-political issues presented here, or not that we can see. The US is going to war again in Syria and this article is simply devoted to figuring out how it will be prosecuted.

It's entirely drained of any empathy regarding those who may get trapped by the upcoming war, or become its victims. But of course, that's not its brief. This is not an article – nor it seems a website – where you will find much in the way of contemplation regarding the larger dangers of what the Pentagon is about to do.