That statement I was taught by a very brilliant tactician begins with:

Know your capability, know your enemies capability, know the environment and…

Darned if he wasn’t right, time after time. In exercise after exercise, real world operation after real world operation.

Call to action: Get and read “Rules for Radicals” by Saul Alinsky. Why? Know your enemy, it’s part of the formula. President Obama matured under the likes of Bill Ayers, who direct subscribed to these methods, ergo, it will expose how President Obama, and his fellow travellers, look at the world and operate.

Below, the summary from MIYAMOTO’S PUBLIC RELATIONS RESOURCE (Craig Miyamoto) with some comentary:

RULE 1: “Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.” Power is derived from 2 main sources – money and people. “Have-Nots” must build power from flesh and blood. (These are two things of which there is a plentiful supply. Government and corporations always have a difficult time appealing to people, and usually do so almost exclusively with economic arguments.)

RULE 2: “Never go outside the expertise of your people.” It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone. (Organizations under attack wonder why radicals don’t address the “real” issues. This is why. They avoid things with which they have no knowledge.)

RULE 3: “Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.” Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty. (This happens all the time. Watch how many organizations under attack are blind-sided by seemingly irrelevant arguments that they are then forced to address.)

RULE 4: “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.” If the rule is that every letter gets a reply, send 30,000 letters. You can kill them with this because no one can possibly obey all of their own rules. (This is a serious rule. The besieged entity’s very credibility and reputation is at stake, because if activists catch it lying or not living up to its commitments, they can continue to chip away at the damage.)

RULE 5: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions. (Pretty crude, rude and mean, huh? They want to create anger and fear.)

RULE 6: “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.” They’ll keep doing it without urging and come back to do more. They’re doing their thing, and will even suggest better ones. (Radical activists, in this sense, are no different that any other human being. We all avoid “un-fun” activities, and but we revel at and enjoy the ones that work and bring results.)

RULE 7: “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.” Don’t become old news. (Even radical activists get bored. So to keep them excited and involved, organizers are constantly coming up with new tactics.)

RULE 8: “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.” Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new. (Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, regroup, recover and re-strategize.)

RULE 9: “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.” Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist. (Perception is reality. Large organizations always prepare a worst-case scenario, something that may be furthest from the activists’ minds. The upshot is that the organization will expend enormous time and energy, creating in its own collective mind the direst of conclusions. The possibilities can easily poison the mind and result in demoralization.)

RULE 10: “If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.” Violence from the other side can win the public to your side because the public sympathizes with the underdog. (Unions used this tactic. Peaceful [albeit loud] demonstrations during the heyday of unions in the early to mid-20th Century incurred management’s wrath, often in the form of violence that eventually brought public sympathy to their side.)

RULE 11: “The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.” Never let the enemy score points because you’re caught without a solution to the problem. (Old saw: If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. Activist organizations have an agenda, and their strategy is to hold a place at the table, to be given a forum to wield their power. So, they have to have a compromise solution.)

RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)

Without even spending much time to research all of the application in real time, think about this:

Rush Limbaugh has already seen Rule 12 applied.

The entire Conservative/Republican voting base has seen Rule 3, with the advent of the extensive use of the Internet to rally support, discredit opponents, and to spread fear and the Messianic line of “Hope and Change.”

Rule 1 was plastered in the face of the Congressional Leaders just yesterday. The question is will the reaction in the coming days indicate those who we targeted his “I won!” comment at allow themselves to believe in that power?

Rule 2: Just look at the Chicago/Illinois “personnel” surrounding the President. I’m betting one day, William Ayers will stay overnight in the Lincoln Bedroom, too.

Rule 5? C’mon. President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Senator McCain and Governor Palin and just about every other top level administration official was subjected to this. Note “they” even had the finesse of making the MSM and Saturday Night Live do their lifting. Plausible deniability. I guess they listened to the Congressional Hearing in the mid-80’s.

Rule 8 is already in use, with the Obama (note: not the Democratic Party) continuing to exploit the massive email data base collected during the campaign to solicit funds and drive agendas. Count on those 3M+ addresses to become a factor in the futre. So long as the “loyal opposition” fails to grasp the basic communication capability of the ‘Net, they will be in a tail chase.

Rule 9: The “OMG! THE ECONOMY IS FALLING AND IT”S BUSH’S FAULT!” ‘Nuff said.

Rule 10: How about a man with no experience, being put forward as just the man to handle the job, because he had “judgment?” That’s still left to be seen, but that huge negative was made a winning point.

There is my quick analysis. I don’t think the basic tactics we’ll see in the next few years will stray from these directions, but the interesting part will be which specific venues in which they will be employed. The greatest danger lies in the power of the Executive Orders and various regulatory agencies, requiring no permission from Congress to enact policies that will put these measures in play. FCC will be a first major push, to effectively push “Dissent, the highest form of Patriotism” into non-existence. Like all operations, you need to “decapitate” the organization, by silencing the leadership.

Next will come various policies from the Treasury, Labor, EPA and other departments that codify these actions under the Governmental authority, and therefore carrying the wiegh of enforcement, which will chill even more localized opposition.

As Rush pointed out on his show the other day, he has power over no one. President Obama, on the other hand, has the full weight of the Government of the United States at his command, and he has already said: “I won” out loud to his opponents. He’s not interested in the collective mind being brought to bear for the good of the Nation, but the “collective” coming in line for his party’s power.

The other pieces of the puzzle: Know your capabilities and know the environment, in this case US politics, our citzens and our educational environment, are also important. Get to work, or give up your hope now.