They would fight until the very end because, unlike us, every single one of them, every second of every day, was devoted to consuming all life on Earth
I mean... this isn't true? In practice, they mostly stand around, maybe shamble aimlessly. Zombies don't make any active effort to 'consume all life on earth', they attack prey that comes near and spend most of their time doing literally nothing.
(And they don't seem to care about plants.)
Which, somewhat related to the whole 'they don't have any coordination and that's an advantage' bit.
A threat that is always ready to fight, but has no initiative, that has no coordination, but never breaks, that is easy to outmaneuver but difficult to root out...
That's not an
army, that's a
minefield. Demining is difficult and dangerous but it's not a 'war'. Likewise, fighting the zombies... there's not really any chance the reclamation will
lose the initiative. If some element fucks up disastrously and gets annihilated, it's not like the zombies will take advantage of that. On the other hand, an army can be defeated, can be weakened such that it can no longer achieve its objectives and goes to ground. A minefield can only be cleared. I have no idea what to make of that, but it's... something.
with our vehicles and whatnot in the center.
Hmm. Are they planning to use the vehicles for a breakout? That... might not be *totally* insane, except for the whole 'NEVER RETREAT' thing. If not, I'm wondering why they aren't on top of them or using them as a barricade.
Bags of rubble made of kevlar. Why are they made of kevlar?
If I had a reliable supply of kevlar, I would say 'so that the bags don't break from pointy bits of rubble/rough handling/being clawed by zombies and collapse the wall', but... given the US doesn't seem to have a reliable supply of kevlar... yeah use layered canvas or something. Possibly heavier and not quite as tough but it'll do.
Honestly insane. The USA could barely stomach casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan at their peaks, Taking such insane casualities is so foreign to the US psyche as to be genuinely untenable.
That was, to be fair, after the US took such insane casualties. The majority of people died.
And you know, the government loves to talk about how the Army didn't take a single casualty at Hope.
Yes, the doctrine described sounds like a guarantee that their units will be in one of two states: Fine or Annihilated.
It's just—this is not how light infantry works! In any military system with a reason to distinguish between light and heavy infantry, light infantry has a mobility advantage, and any remotely successful army is going to use that advantage. Skirmishers or flanking units or just...anything except standing in one place and shooting.
Max Brooks is, perhaps, something weirder than a light infantry fetishist.
A
heavy infantry fetishist (Napoleonic Edition).
The Infantry Square is designed for all around defense against an enemy far more mobile than you. It kind of makes sense against Fast Zombies I guess, but not against slow.
It's... I mean, against an enemy surrounding you, you don't really have many options other than a square. The zombies being slow won't make the square *less* effective. It's just that the question of 'what formation should I adopt against a numerically superior surrounding force that is still slower than us' is best answered by 'fucking don't'