by Orlando E. de Leon
Please consider this as a product of a quarantined mind, hence an idle one. It does not intend to hurt sensibilities, but rather to provoke some thoughts, not a fight. Hehehe.
One of the principles of war is “simplicity.” A war plan, or an action plan for that matter, should be kept as simple as possible, so that a private can understand it. Keep in mind that only a handful of generals and officers make the plan. A multitude of soldiers, who has no idea what these generals and officers are thinking, will execute the plan. Picture that out.
I have an aversion to plans that are more of a display of English proficiency and political correctness than straightforward language.
War is chaos. A plan intends to manage this chaos. This is why most plans focus on the essential tasks each and every one will perform. Likewise, each and every individual should know and understand the importance of each task in the whole scheme.
Why am I saying all of these? Well, because I see a weakness in our defense plan. Why defense plan? Because we have not invented the weapon to fight the enemy, yet. Hence, we cannot go on the offensive.
Where does the weakness lie? With due respect to everyone, firstly, the weakness lies in our mis-identification of frontliners. Secondly, we did not allocate tasks correctly.
Who are the frontliners? To me it is the FAMILY. The HOMES and its perimeter. Believe it or not, they are the first ones to confront the enemy and bear the brunt of all ammunition thrown by Covid-19. I consider hospitals and health workers as the second line of defense where we bring our FAMILY and HOME casualties. The second line of defense should not be made to fight this war. They must be preserved so that the FAMILIES and the HOMES can continue fighting.
Maybe it is high time to reverse the psychology of our default action of calling the military and the police and other security elements in this type of warfare. I see them as just the supporting force to the main effort, which is again, the FAMILIES and the HOMES.
We have declared war on Covid-19. We asked every citizen to fight. However, we immobilized the greater part of our fighting force by not giving them the right task. We treated them as “pesky” creatures that cause more problems.
As I’ve said, let us reverse the psychology of this warfare. Let it be understood that the main effort and the first line of defense are the FAMILIES and HOMES. Give them the task of preventing the enemy, Covid-19, from infiltrating their perimeter and defenses. Arm them with the right tools, knowledge, and equipment. And as a fighting force, feed them to sustain the fight. Keep tabs on their casualties.
Giving them the sense of responsibility and the importance in this war might do the trick. Let us stop the so-called strategic communication of “Masuwerte kayo na nasa bahay lang, kami nakikipaglaban.” It does not work. It will not work because it is, I believe, a very shallow understanding of the psychology of a nation. Besides, it becomes self-serving and divisive. It does not harness collective effort nor encourage cooperation. Rather, it alienates a bigger part of the fighting force, the real frontliners.
Let us make this OUR FIGHT and NOT THEIR FIGHT. The next question we ask now is: what type of war are we fighting? That’s for the next post.
This was posted as a Facebook status on March 29, and is published here with permission.