The Mittani is more or less correct about this being a valid approach to warfare. However, he is mistaken if he truly believes his "failure cascade" is really a new military concept. It isn't. And he didn't invent it. He can be forgiven for this mis-characterization as his training is in the field of psychology, not military staff planning.
It's been part of the U.S. Army's Air Land Battle Doctrine for decades and is in many ways the centerpiece of contemporary US military operations. It's often referred to on TV as "
shock and awe," but that's just a new term for an old concept.
The US military has used this approach to great effect numerous times, but it's probably fair to give most of the credit for refining this doctrine to the German theorists responsible for the blitzkrieg tactics utilized during WWII. However, it is also fair to point out that shock and awe, while sharing similarities with blitzkrieg, is not exactly the same thing. Shock and awe puts a much greater emphasis on purposely targeting the enemy leadership. As they say, cut off the head and the body will die.
The basic idea here is to pressure the enemy in numerous ways, hitting his upper level command and leadership with more problems than can be simultaneously dealt with. If properly executed, the end result is that the enemy's leadership is mentally and psychologically overwhelmed, which in turn causes paralysis or collapse of subordinate commands, eventually rendering entire combat units ineffective. As every military leader knows, units at all echelons of command are linked and co-dependent for survival and logistics. Overwhelming the command's ability to respond will, if successful, cause a domino effect as units lose combat effectiveness or, in the very worst case scenario, units lose cohesiveness and rout. In its most successful form, this can rapidly lead to a wholesale breakdown of the entire organization. And it is worth noting that inflicting mass casualties is
not a prerequisite to causing such a defeat. The rapid capitulation of France in WWII is probably a good real world example.
This is the failure cascade The Mittani is referring to. Whether you call it failure cascade, shock and awe or some other term, it is to be found in the battlefield doctrines of the US and most other Western powers.