Science of Guerrilla Warfare / 1

Most wars are wars of contact, both forces striving to keep in touch to avoid tactical surprise. The Arab war should be a war of detachment: to contain the enemy by the silent threat of a vast unknown desert, not disclosing themselves till the moment of attack. This attack need be only nominal, directed not against his men, but against his materials: so it should not seek for his main strength or his weaknesses, but for his most accessible material. In railway cutting this would be usually an empty stretch of rail. This was a tactical success. From this theory came to be developed ultimately an unconscious habit of never engaging the enemy at all. This chimed with the numerical plea of never giving the enemy's soldier a target. Many Turks on the Arab front had no chance all the war to fire a shot, and correspondingly the Arabs were never on the defensive, except by rare accident. The corollary of such a rule was perfect "intelligence," so that plans could be made in complete certainty. The chief agent had to be the general's head (de Feuquière said this first), and his knowledge had to be faultless, leaving no room for chance. The headquarters of the Arab army probably took more pains in this service than any other staff.

- source: T.E. Lawrence, Science of Guerrilla Warfare, 1929

More links: Wu Ming, Lawrence of Arabia: On the Fight against Copyright, 2003.
['Eventually, Lawrence states that "the contest [is] not physical, but moral." As a matter of fact, a good portion of "pirates" give the contest an unequivocal ethical value. They think that the Net's horizontal nature and gift economy must be defended, and that private property of popular culture is a contradiction in terms. Lawrence ends the text with an admonition that ought to cause a loud buzzing in all those corporate ears, and persuade the bosses that repression is not the solution. The whole legislation on copyright is to be radically reformed. "Copyleft" open licenses are to be adopted on all levels. Prices are to be cut. The rivers of money are to be diverted, so they no longer flow into some superstar's pockets and are invested in quality increases and better platforms for on-line sales. There are already many experiments going on...']
- if you read Italian or Spanish, check this out: Wu Ming 4, Junto a los rios de Babilonia: Apuntes sobra la teoria de la guerrilla de T.E. Lawrence [ITA] [ES]