We received many excellent entries for our contest celebrating the publication of David Weber’s Honor Harrington novel, A Rising Thunder. The winner is James Dodd and the runner up is Kathryn Walton. Our esteemed judge for the contest was Thomas Pope.
JUDGE’S NOTE: The winning entry had just the right balance of planning, organization, and an excellent two-pronged attack mechanism that made it stand out from the crowd. The fact that the covert group focused on destabilization along several fronts rather than exclusively terror attacks was another factor in the decision, as it supports the long term viability of the revolution, and gives the best chances of creating a stable alternative to the original government. Finally, the addition of references, while not considered in the original judging, was still a nice touch.
My path to overthrow the government features complementary forces: an overt political party openly supporting freedom and a new (and of course improved) government: and a covert group conducting destabilization actions against targets of the current government establishment. The political party will of course eschew violence while openly understanding the motivations of the covert group, and while demonizing the current government institutions and ideology.
The covert group will attack the programs and systems of the current government's security forces, which will cause them to tighten control, and thus play into the hands of the political party. A small number of covert forces will then be able to tie down a much larger number of security forces. The covert force will also benefit from Jerry Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracies, as the security bureaucrats will unwillingly create opportunities for both the covert force and the political party to exploit.
The covert group actions will also target the resources needed by itself and the political party to operate, chiefly money and other valuable things. Covert operations will also include counterfeiting of the various items used by the official government, including items that generally pass below the visibility of officials, for example food stamps and other permissions. The covert group is organized in cellular style to limit the effectiveness of counter operations.
The overt group will work to cause friction between the indigenous population and the despotic ruling force, while the covert group infiltrates using sex, drugs and rock & roll.
References:
- Major H. von Dach, Total Resistance…Swiss Army Guide to Guerilla Warfare and Underground Operations
- E.D. Swinton, The Defence of Duffer's Drift
JUDGE’S NOTE: This one doesn’t mess around! An initial series of attacks tears apart the planetary infrastructure and things go downhill from there. Good follow-up attacks and planning are key here, and the steps proposed are well reasoned and solid. The only thing is that the winning side is going to take possession of a smoking ruin of a planet in the end. Ah well.
A planet wide EMP pulse is mandatory as a first step - hit the planet's ability to communicate and co-ordinate. Kidnap and detain one or two top level governmental officials who can agree the step down of the government and add to that a bombing campaign to take out all main government buildings (preferably with the rest of the said governmental officials within them) any large military complexes (in order to ensure that you do not end up helping a military junta into power) and any and all news services - you run the news, you own the people.
If you are really going to get nasty (and if your planet is groaning at the seams with people), release a targeted virus to wipe out any problematic portions of the citizenry (making sure of course you do have an antidote) or simply ensure that they feel so ill they cannot get out of bed to resist your insurgency.
Have a printing press ready to get up and running - remember, you've wiped out all electronic communication and information systems so you need to be able to inform and contact people in order to bring them over to your side. Run a series of articles blaming the military for the EMP pulse and for the bombing campaign - after all, you don't want the man in the street to start trusting the military. Always remember - you need to blame the government and the military for everything - you're just pulling the planet's irons out of the proverbial fire!
Set up a large militia of like-minded people who are loyal to you and have them ready to go at D-day - those who own the streets, own the cities and thereafter the world. Ensure that they are willing to fight to the death (invoke a supreme being if need be) and that they are well armed and you have plenty of ammo and have access to plenty of large WMDs. Enough fighting and you will manage to ensure the end of any planetary authority.
Once you've won, spend the next thirty years fighting starvation, homelessness, plague and other local rebellions (which will spring up) all the while attempting to repair the infrastructure you have just torn down.