Progress Report on the Fifth Battlespace

It was postulated, about the emerging nature of the information landscape, early in the 90's, at the beginning of the Revolution in Military Affairs, that information itself shall soon constitute a complete battlespace to be in particular recognized alongside the other existing four which is earth, sea, air, and space.

The importance of this characterization of the nature of information in our age in the context of the mission of the U.S. military was underscored by the designation of this nascent battlespace, of whose nature, climate, and environmental constants as well as variables were yet undefined, as primarily the specific domain of the youngest and brightest of the five distinct branches of the U.S. Armed Services, the Air Force.

This importance was driven primarily by the recognition from within the military of the emerging reality of an information threshold; that the realm of information evolving as a distinct presence in our world shall soon become decisively poised to shape the nature of human affairs in general but in particular, and as far as this report goes, the military affairs of the nations.

This was and still is evidenced by the growth of not a few information-centric thinking among the world's military establishments as well as the development and potential of those technological derivatives in support of those doctrines designed to establish warfighitng as an ability in the fifth battlespace.

This was over two decades ago now. And today we have yet to pierce the cloud that surrounds the fifth battlespace. I have come to a conviction that information which is inert yields not the secrets of its coming and going without a final recognition of a space that exists as an unseen reality beyond its nature where there inhabits a force that works behind its constant state of flux.

This force is spirit and, in my mind, it is spirit, not information, that constitutes the fifth battlespace.

Information as a whole is integral to the fourth battlespace which is space being that interior aspect of light and darkness that is both contained by space and constrained by time that in ebbing and flowing, dwells in a state of constant revelation to the mind of man.

And this new information age we are now thrust in, right here at the very crossroads, is - more precisely - an Age of Spirit and Thought.

I used to hold many fears as to the dangers of the fifth battlespace. Now they are not as many and those that do remain, though still quite significant, I feel are those we can, with good effort and concentration, hope to adequately mitigate if not master.

How we, as nations, understand information and how we apply its fruits to bless the human ends for which all information has been, from the very beginning of time, destined by heaven and earth depends on our strength of spirit and this strength of spirit depends on right remembrance - where:



1+1 = better. 
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Salutation #115

Today is Araw ng Kagitingan.



(Araw ng Kagitingan 2012)

Today
we remember
(1) the universal ideals of the noble military,
(2) the virtues of the person of the soldier,
and (3) the common peace that informs the spirit
of all national military remembrances.

Today
we remember these
specifically as it pertains
to the one Filipino profession of arms
that we may each - as citizens to each other -
recall to mind and heart
the timeless values
that make the institution of our AFP
truly worthy of its own distinction
as a defender of our nation 
and of all nations.

Today 
we remember
the sacred friendships of nations;
those eternal bonds of brotherhood
forged through a common experience
of the sufferings and the horrors of war.

Today 
we remember
the friendship between our nation
and the one American nation -
faithful in and of itself,
able to comfort and preserve,
in times of peace and in times of war
if we remain faithful to its keeping.

Today
we remember
friendships that we as one nation
- ever must carefully and diligently seek -
in every age and in every generation
being those belongings that serve
to call all nations ever nearer together;

those friendships that must exist
between our nation
and all other kindred nations
of our one, great family of nations -

that we may, as one people, soon learn
to truly know and understand
what every nation does ultimately seek
through the bearing of these arms -

Eternity. Virtue. Humanity. Universality.

Peace.
---<--@

The Alibata for "Ka" in AFP symbology means "Kagitingan" or "Valor".

VALOR is a kind of mastery, not of fear, but of the self. 

It is an uncertain virtue. For none is sure to possess it save for when one becomes possessed by it in the face of great suffering and terrible danger.  

---<--@

Courage goes from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.

- Sir Winston Churchill

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Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear: not absence of fear. 

Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave. 

- Mark Twain 

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Perfect valour consists in doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone. 

- François Duc de La Rochefoucauld 

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Conquest is the missionary of valor, and the hard impact of military virtues beats meanness out of the world. 

- Walter Bagehot

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20110622

Salutation #19

(The War in Heaven, the Person of the Soldier, and the Responsibility of Peace)

Mankind was never meant

by the one LORD of all heaven and earth

to face the darkness and the desolation wrought by

the Adversary of God and of All Sacred Life.

Mankind was never meant to fight these battles.

War was never part of the plan for the nations of the children of Mankind.

Therefore, the craft of Peace

which is the craft of all human nations

is not a wholly human obligation.

Humanity (as the nations of Mankind)

shares this role (the person of the soldier)

and responsibility (the craft of soldiering)

of Peace with the Holy Angels of the LORD

for the mission of the Absolute Defense is a ministry

empowered and blessed by the victory

of our one, invulnerable and omnipotent God.

The War in heaven is in the heart.

But this Peace is just as ancient as the ancient of War.

If we forget this, O my beloved nations,

in this midnight darkness, we will lose our way.

For War takes responsibility only for itself.

But this Peace is the responsibility of All.

All Soldiers fight from the heart

alive to the eternal mission of the one Army

this is the person of the soldier -

it is a ministry of the defense of Sacred Life.

Blessed is the nation served by them.

For thou art a nation of Peace!

And truly, truly, truly,

the LORD prospers all of His own.

The uniform of every military service is sacred

but the person of the soldier is held in the highest esteem

by the noble military of all nations.

For the person of the soldier

does not dwell with War in the Heart.

He does not stand from a view

of permanent and irreconcilable divisions

that believes that the causes for conflict are many

and the enemy is everywhere.

He does not draw his elan vitale

from a will dominated by blind hatred

of vague and faceless opponents.

For all soldiers fight from the heart

but the person of the soldier does not fight

to maintain and advance the causes of a divided Mankind.

Nor exist to propagate the flames of conflict.

For he is not a taker of life but a preserver of the life of nations.

Truly blessed are those nations served by them.

For thou art nations of Peace!

And truly, truly, truly,

the LORD prospers all of His own.

(NOTE: The use of the word "soldier" in this body of work is always inclusive of all members of the armed services but specifically pertains to the Infantry).

---<--@

The Quest for Sustainable Peace

THERE IS NO OTHER TIME in human history where the need for peace is greater than our present time.

With the passing of the last century, we have seen the great tumult brought about by three global wars - the First, Second and the Cold War.

It must not be lost to our humanity that a war that is global in scope is a significant evolution in the nature of warfare.

For conflict and its paradigm run parallel in their course. War and its outbreaks in our world being determined both by the actual viability of waging war and the will to make war is indicative of the relationship between conflict and its paradigm.

The paradigm that exists today in our world is one of War (in the heart).

And this paradigm is prevalent not only in terms of the conflicts that plague our nations, this paradigm is now present also in our societies, in our markets and even in our places of worship - the one place where War should have no footing, it has entered.

Thus, because the paradigm of War is an absolute whole and as this paradigm has come to cover the whole of the earth, the very word, "peace", it can now be said, is both under appreciated and misunderstood in its meaning (i.e. it appears eclipsed to the eye of our souls).

To understand War as a paradigm whole, we must return to our roots.

To understand Peace as a paradigm whole, we must awaken to the eternal destiny of our nations.

If we are to include spiritual considerations with regards to War as a paradigm whole, it would be more sobering. But since I should like to make this a primarily secular statement, I thought not to include it as much as possible (without damaging or distorting the reality of our humanity) in this post.

For the reality of the times and the obvious trending of these things are indicative enough of the consequences to make the choice for Peace, a very reasonable one.

With the passing of the last millennium, after 2000 years of dwelling with War, we must (as nations dreaming together this time) complete our remembrances and bring our hopes forward for the favorable season for Peace is Now.

At the waning of the Industrial Age, there are yet problems that exist in our world that belong to that age, problems which shall prevent or preclude what benefits our world stand to reap from this Information Age as well as understand more closely the challenges that await us which are proper to this new age.

But the siege of War must be lifted even before our nations shall have the capacity to effectively address these problems.

We are nations because our responsibility to our world and to each other require us to dwell in the strength of our human communities.

And we will take this responsibility with us in this life and, if I may, in the one that is to come (for we shall also individually stand to final account before the bar of the Justice of God in Eternity for this manifest gift of nationhood).

Our human habitation is not just this inhabited earth, it is the reality that includes both spirit and earth, body and soul, for thus were we created, only thus can all things truly human be effectively understood.

Human reality is our habitation - our one visible universe and those universes within every human being. Our habitation, like ourselves, forms a one, indivisible whole. Therefore, there is nothing truly human that can be divided - much less the earth.

It is material possession not the truth that is relative. This is not to say that we should not practice prudence in our temporal affairs - it is a good thing to be able to hold on to material wealth for it is a reflection of entrepreneurial skill and virtue, but above all things, we should ever be mindful that our ultimate belonging is to each other.

True and lasting human happiness, in all realities, can only be achieved as a common destiny. And this destiny can never be won by ends that are purely material, entirely selfish, self-serving or willfully evil.

Our nations with their Responsible States respect borders not because our reality is divided but because this responsibility must be shared by all nations.

Nor does human responsibility end at every limit of a nation-state's sphere of influence. In fact, if I may, our human responsibility stretches ever onward across our generations and into eternity.

Our responsible stewardship of creation requires Mankind, in all our generations, to be thus arrayed - as nations. Indeed, our nations, albeit imperfect, were meant for more noble and worthwhile purposes than breeding grounds for those conflicts which in the end shall defeat the cause for which they were at the autumnal dusk of our faded Eden established - to prosper the Peace of the LORD, our God and one, true Sovereign.

The paradigm of War makes meaningful the lie that war can somehow be good - all war is evil - only human beings can obtain the grace to be good, no war is just, but there are just people who from every nation must fight in them.

War preys on other truths, corrupting them for its own ambitions in order to gain a footing in the human soul which shall otherwise perceive as incomprehensible the meaningless lie which is its one, true form and substance.

Neither War nor its agents, seen or unseen, can ever truly be good - for War, by nature of its violence and aggression as witnessed by all our nations in our history, must involve the willful taking away of human life, the destruction of created things, the annihilation of entire nations - the very definition of complete evil.

The spirit of War revels in meaningless opposition, division, deception, discord and blind hatred - everything that is foreign to our original human belongings both as nations and as individuals. It mires the people in despair and poverty.

Indeed, even our nations shall fail to take their flight if their spirit is afflicted by the descendant gravity of War.

There will be conflict, for we live in an imperfect reality, but it should not have to bear any more significant a weight so as to reduce any nation-state's capacity to provide for itself, advance the common good, make provisions to better aid other nation-states and secure the Peace that shall help mature its own Sheltering Wings to serve and to prosper all the generations of Sacred Life entrusted by God to each its own nurture and protection.

The sum total of all the ill will that humanity can muster on its own can not match the evils we have witnessed in the last 2000 years (or more if remembrance serves us well, right to the time of Abel when the Beast of War first entered into the earth).

And this Beast of War may only be gathering in force and maturity - at our expense.

Therefore, this is not to say that we will not employ military force in our defense as nations. For defense is the natural duty not only of every human individual as citizens to each other but also of the Angels of the LORD. Truly, even God Himself is committed to this cause (Sacred Life).

But no defense can ever survive if it arrives last and does not hold the ground.

For defense by its own nature must be fought from grounds that are understood and therefore, held by the line of the defense being certain of its own truth; ordered, organized, lawful and arrayed as thus, being noble in spirit and in form.

And Peace as a one paradigm whole is the grounds by which this defense shall be undertaken.

We must quest for sustainable peace in our world. Drive back the darkness of War and make room (in our hearts, in our lives, in our communities, and in our times) for a better, more worthwhile, albeit imperfect world for all the nations of our one family of the nations of Mankind.

Our humanity (in our nations as nations distinct but not apart from each other being bound by spirit and covenant as one family) must become alert to the fact that the generations that are to come after us depend on us today.

Their song must not remain unsung.

This is our fight, our longest night.
---<--@

Mabuhay po tayong lahat nang mga bansa! Long may our remembrance serve us. May God bless all the nations of our one family of the nations of Mankind.

The Hero of Tirad Pass

Remember,

O noble Filipino soul -

you gallant keepers of the peace,

the virtues that keep thee steadfast

in the spirit of the defense.

Love of God,

love of Country,

love of Sacred Life

even to the point of giving it

in the midst of the nation in thy selves

and the assembly of the nations before God

- freely and with joy -

with courage and honor intact

for that same cause.

Remember our own

General Gregorio del Pilar,

the Hero of Tirad Pass!

THE LAST FADING AWAY

O Soul of Army!
Defender of our Peace -
when in battle we weep
for those whose time has come
weep not because of anguish,
our tears are meant not for grief.

Cry not because they have fallen,
those sons and daughters of Country;
valorous souls who gave to us their utmost
and have bled their everlasting witness
to the universal mission of the eternal Army
from which all honorable armed professions
draw their great lineages of victory
Here, at the last fading away -
the quest for that one final sacrifice
the very last soldier to fall

before the breaking of the Day
in the name of Peace and for Sacred Life
in a relentless war that have lasted
from the dawn of Our exile time.

O Soldier of the Peace!
Noble Defender of Country -
You are life preserving life itself
for what is Country but a work of life.
Know you not why you respond
when duty calls you to battle?
Vague at times may your reasons be
especially amidst the desolation of war
and the darkness of war's attendant evils
but forget not what you love
and love shall forget not why you live
and none shall forget you if you shall fall
for in thy Country is thy longevity
Life itself shall be your resting place
and God will forever remember you
His Peace shall forever honor you
for the time you have given others -
more time for building,
more time for sowing,
more time for loving,
more time for hoping,
for kinder days to come.

O when shall the wounding stop
and the healing begin!
O beloved Soul of Army -
when is our last fading away?

Until mankind learns
to be better builders in peace
more than wanton destroyers in war;
until humanity learns
to value Sacred Life
than to seek those paths of death
Heaven and earth shall weep
with thee, O Soul of Army,
but never for those whose time has come
for the lost are never lost
so we must seek them not in vain.
Seek not our fallen with the dead
for life is life and death is death
so let the dead bury the dead!
Let us look for those who are triumphant
not with the defeated enemies of the Peace
but with the living as well as the everliving
for God Himself has declared Peace is over War.

It is for the oppressors of Country
and the enemy of Peace and Sacred Life
for whom the bell tolls
as we sing the songs of our fallen heroes
and their potent remembrance stir
in the hearts of those who yet believe
in the victory of the eternal Army
and in the timeless vision of God
to bring to bear in the name of All that is life
the final wrath that is to come
and bring to pass
Our last fading away;
that one final hymn of taps
at the joyful dawn of the Everlasting Peace
and the breaking of this midnight world.

So cry not because of the passing away
weep for loneliness but never for sorrow
for life is life and death is death.
Let us save most of our tears for those
who yet stubbornly cling to the lie
and believe in the heart in everything that is false
giving rise to all things that inflict evil to our poor world
and bring war and death to our suffering humanity.

For it is always for the reprobate that the bell tolls
to remind to those who sow in War what they shall reap.

The Peace of the Times

20101222

Order of Chaplains, Abrahamic

The information revolution as signified by the revolution in military affairs (RMA) at the advent of the information age is clearly and primarily a moral evolution.

To be sure, this information revolution is a planetary phenomenon the effects of which have only been becoming more and more tangibly felt across all the nations of the world as a whole.

Many things may be said about it, so many in fact that it is often difficult to know where to begin to understand its longer term effects.

However, its surest foundation, it may now be affirmed, especially in the universal profession of arms, must only be found in every human heart - the primordial domain of the human spirit.

Therefore, the necessary evolution of our AFP into a 21st Century force must also include, along with the Human Rights Office (HRO), its Chaplain Corps.

That there must be those lingering divisions and present confusion at the heart of the military Chaplaincy in general is in itself a sign of the times.

Because it is precisely this darkness in the soul itself that must first be confronted and overcome to set its will of faith against the greater darkness that plagues the human spirit in general and the noble military in specific.

And we shall do this, my fellow Filipino compatriots - together this time.

Toward this end is conceived the Order of Chaplains, Abrahamic:

The one Chaplaincy

The military Chaplain is a servant of God
and a dedicated instrument of the one Peace of God.

He does not bear arms against men
nor does he exists to fight against the nations of men.

He is an extension of the good will of all nations
and a constant reminder of our desire for better days.

He is faithful to the cause of the noble military
being jealous in the observance of honor and purity of arms.

He is a keeper of our sacred remembrances
lending noble strength to the martial practice of virtue.

He is a shepherd of the souls of our soldiers
and represents amidst conflicts our abiding hope for peace.

He labors to instill in every heart, a will of life,
and gives recourse to sorrow when life itself seems lost.

He brings comfort when despair seem to linger near
consoling spirits by his gentle sense of optimism and joy.

He is patient to understand each need to be understood
and leads the anxious heart toward greater trust in greater things.

He brings the light of God when darkness is deepest
and speaks the necessary truth when and where truth counts.

He provides for the spiritual needs of the soldier
and the Sacraments (Catholic) that strengthen them in the grace of God.

He counsels the doubtful, the confused he guides into reason, he instructs the ignorant in the truth and the lost he helps to be found by faith in God.

He prays for the safety of the person of the soldier at all times, in times of peace but especially in fields of battle, entrusting to God and Country, the victory of our noble military.
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Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Christmas Greetings!

Peace among the nations.

Good will to all men and women of peace.

...from star to star, one whole sky:




Jus Cogens: The Four Faithful Causes