DOCTRINE
What happens when an unstoppable force collides with an immovable object?
Obviously, no object can resist an unstoppable force. Again obviously, no force can move an immovable object. So if an immovable object meets an unstoppable force, it will move and not move. The premisses seem to be necessary truths, which is the formulation of the paradox also known as the spear and shield paradox.
Philosophical implications aside, presumably, some higher-ups in the long and lost military history of the empires found a convenient solution for the paradox and decided that a force consisting of authority holders exclusively, theoretically, can control all dimensions of the battlespace, effectively possessing an overwhelming diversity of resources, having the potential of being both an unstoppable force and an immovable object. There you go, the wisdom of the ancients. The problem is solved.
Well, The Training and Doctrine Command digress.
Obviously, the modern military doctrine imposes power projection and full-spectrum operations to seize, retain, and exploit the initiative. Thus, if it is impossible for an irresistible force to meet an immovable object, or if it is contradictory to say they co-exist, one must choose one or another, and so that an unmovable object can't be used to project power or to seize, retain, and exploit the initiative, the choice is always to be the unstoppable force.
But the real question is, what is an unstoppable force?
According to The Training and Doctrine Command, theoretically, any force that is strong enough to obliterate its target and small and fast enough to be impossible to retaliate would be unstoppable. There you go, the ingenuity of the contemporaries. Easier said than done.
Intricacies of old and new aside, any force consisting of exclusively authority holders, is a terrifying one, everyone agrees on that. It can literally dominate all dimensions of the battlespace be it physical, mental, or spiritual.
It can project power on physical battlespace be it air, surface, and sub-surface as well as astral, chemical, biological, electromagnetic, or information space.
It can project power on mental battle space be it conscious, preconscious, unconscious, non-conscious, or subconscious.
It can project power on spiritual battle space be it scholastic, prophetic, charismatic, or mystic.
It can strike hard and fast and retreat without a trace or hold position indefinitely.
For a squad of authority holders, the best defense is mobility, the safest place on the battlefield is right next to the enemy and every conflict that lasts more than a few moments is a lost one.
Well, when your opponent is capable of thinking therefore you aren't, conflicts tend to last short.
So call your banners, and gather your hosts. Summon your angels and demons. Your paragons with all their grace and your monsters with all their cruelty. Raise armies of the dead, build throngs of self-replicating automatons, and clone your genetically modified abominations.
And tell them to surrender.
Because your empires will fall and their leaders will be disintegrated and their armies are mowed down by the billions. That’s what happens when they win.
And when they lose? God forbid, it’s worse. Far worse...
Essays
Agāh H. Ates
571 Imperial + 005 Cihan
