BATTLE: LOS ANGELES

Steven Petrick writes:

As I type this, this movie has not yet been released. By the time this is being read, the movie may have been released. The point is that I am typing this to input some thoughts based solely on what I have seen in the commercials.

One of the things that will need explaining is why nuclear weapons are not being used: why have the aliens not used them, and why our own side has not resorted to them. If the aliens are able to cross the void of space to begin an invasion of planet Earth, they must have nuclear capability. Maybe they even have weapons even more terrible but otherwise currently beyond out imagining. Why are they not employing these to further disrupt our ability to defend ourselves? While the aliens are launching their attacks against at least a dozen major coastal population centers on our planet, why are our own governments not using nuclear weapons against these initial lodgments? While their use would create massive civilian casualties and destruction of infrastructure, it would ultimately be less than what the aliens are going to inflict if allowed to gain lodgments.

The nuclear option aside, if your battalion is being committed to this fight, one of the things you need to do is cull a cadre from it, and send it inland. This is going to be a long war (barring the nuclear option), and the enemy has significant technological advantages. You may have to trade multiple human lives to kill one alien (and you may be locked in ground combat with the alien landing force when a nuclear weapon is used with little or no warning). So send a cadre in land to train new troops.

Any civilians you come across who can be turned into soldiers, well, they are going to be. At best, this is going to be a "war of attrition." We have a planet with a population of several billions; they have a hopefully finite number of personnel they have transported to our planet. We might have to trade 10, 20, or a hundred (or even more) of our own to kill one of them (not a math we desire, but a math that may be necessary to "win"), but if they only have a hundred thousand troops, they will not be able to sustain the losses. We have to work on the theory that their numbers are limited due to the distances they had to cross just to get here. If they can bring their own planetary population to bear combined with their superior technology . . . then it is game over; we are done. So we have to believe their manpower is drastically more limited than ours, do what we can to minimize our losses, but we must inflict loss on them.

For American troops, this war will take some mental adjustment. We are utterly unprepared, mentally, to have an enemy that can contest control of the skies with us. Movement under threat of air attack, not to mention no doubt superior night vision capabilities and satellite reconnaissance capabilities, plus the loss of our own satellite systems (to include GPS) will put major handicaps on our operations. This will require time to adjust.

Another thing will be our vulnerability to chemical and biological warfare. It is almost certain that the invaders will examine us to find means to exploit that. Their own ground troops, fully encased in battle armor, will be effectively immune to such weapons on our own part.

Tactically, it would appear the best option is a mix of close ambush with our most skilled riflemen using high-powered armor piercing munitions. The close ambush is distraction, keep an enemy squad focused on the near threat, while the riflemen pick them off from better fire angles. The enemy seems to have "energy-weapons," so it is possible they will not have acoustic detectors and thus not be able to determine where effective long-range fire is coming from, especially when engaged close. We will have to give ground, and lure the aliens into pre-selected kill zones. We will have to fight short intense squad level actions, no more than a minute or two before disengaging, or they will be able to call in the heavy stuff or cut our retreat.

You need to have officers coordinate with the local police forces, and move the medical staffs out of fixed hospitals (they are going to need to take care of your casualties) and take control of any organized bodies of personnel, even if they are not normally combat troops (e.g., fire departments). You need to arm them (take control of any place that sells guns and munitions) and feed them (take control of any extant food supplies in shopping centers and malls) through the early part of the emergency. Find sources of water and places where you can store water. ("When it comes to slaughter, you will do your work on water.") Fixed sites will eventually be destroyed by the enemy. Use the police and your officers to try to rally the drug gangs as you need the troops and we are all in this together. They may fight for their neighborhoods (their "turf") as an entry (when pushed out of their neighborhoods, they may rally to the cause). You need to make them understand they cannot set up in a building and defy the enemy as they are not fighting "cops." (Cops cannot call in smart bombs to destroy a building like the military can, and the aliens will have no compunction not to destroy an entire city block to kill a few gun men like the U.S. military would.) Inflict loss on the enemy, and back up before you are pinned down and destroyed by their superior firepower. Drug gangs may know their own turf well enough to conduct more of a guerrilla campaign for at least a little while (shoot and move, shoot and move).

It should be obvious that anyone who says "no" will be told: "Martial law" is in effect until the emergency is past. You may record your objections and present them to a court at that time."