Max Boot’s Article about “More Small Wars” — Is a Good Overview of What Needs to Change — It Can Be Summarized in Just One Phrase
© 2014 Peter Free
27 October 2014
Citation
Max Boot, More Small Wars: Counterinsurgency Is Here to Stay, Foreign Affairs (November-December 2014)
The “duh” factor in American war-making
Max Boot is a national security thinker at the Council on Foreign Relations. His article summarizes the flaws in the last ten years of American war-making. I recommend reading it.
For those who will not, the gist is as follows — in his words:
[P]lan for what comes after the overthrow of a regime.
[C]hallenge rosy assumptions during the course of a conflict.
[C]ultivate better strategic thinkers in both the military and the civilian spheres.
[T]ake to heart is the importance of training for more than just short conventional operations.
[B]oost . . . cultural and linguistic skills.
[L]earn . . . [not to] rely too much on high-tech firepower and special operations forces. . . . When it comes to enforcing regime change, there is still no replacement for a rifleman on a street corner.
[D]on’t let logistics drive strategy.
[E]xercise greater authority over contractors on the battlefield.
[C]ooperate with foreign forces and [get] different types of U.S. forces to cooperate with one another.
[R]ecognize that counterinsurgency and nation building take time.
© 2014 Max Boot, More Small Wars: Counterinsurgency Is Here to Stay, Foreign Affairs (November-December 2014) (extracts)
The moral? — In other words, “Don’t be so damn stupid”
Better strategists are the key. A strategist, by definition, is required to think things through in a realistic way — before, during and after the conflict.
Since this rule is so obvious, I suspect that the grimmer reality that I outlined a few days ago governs. When smart people do apparently dumb things repeatedly, something more devious is going on.
This is not to diminish the perspicacity of Max Boot’s observations. I just question his assumption that American leadership actually cares about making successful war for legitimate reasons.