I occasionally stumble across a piece about the First Earth Battalion and I always enjoy reading about it. It is always illustrative to think about how silly things get when you think too far outside of the box. Silly enough for George Clooney to make a movie about it.

So many of the theories behind the First Earth Battalion were founded in new-age spiritual theories that are totally divorced from reality. I am amazed that the military even entertained this to the level of publishing a briefing.

There are actually some smart ideas contained in the briefing: self-organizing non-hierarchical teams, using technology to mediate information, rapid dissemination of ideas though a network. Unfortunately these ideas are cluttered with all of the nonsense about macrobiotic diets and eastern mysticism.

When we look at military and paramilitary structures we can see that they have optimized themselves organizationally for certain types of threats. As the nature of the threat changes the existing organization needs to change to meet that threat.

Asymmetric warfare really blurs the lines between combatants, criminals, and civilians. Where does the guy who bulk purchases cell phones to make IEDs fall into that spectrum? If the IED blows up a truck full of soldiers or bus full of kids does that make a difference?

The First Earth Battalion was a product of thinking about conflicts between state actors with similar moral ideals. While I think the all-hippie army of peacekeepers is novel, I think it has drifted to far away from the one historically proven military success model: killing the enemy.

As an individual private citizen, it is important to recognize that the 'private citizen' pigeon hole doesn't exist in the minds of the enemy. They feel no need to draw a distinction between combatants, criminals, or civilians.