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Wars Without Countries


Draggingtree

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Draggingtree

Wars Without Countries

By WILLIAM S. LINDApril 7, 2003

In 1989, with two Army and two Marine Corps co-authors, I wrote an article entitled, “The Changing Face of War: Into the Fourth Generation.” It predicted a new way of war, fought by enemies who were not states, who moved freely within our own society, and could negate our whole military establishment. Although the article was published simultaneously in the Army’s Military Review and the Marine Corps Gazette, it elicited no reaction.

 

But it seems someone was doing a bit of reading. In February 2002, the Middle East Media Research Institute discovered an al-Qaeda internet magazine named Al-Ansar: For the Struggle Against the Crusader War. In it, a certain Abu ‘Ubeid Al-Qurashi wrote an article, “Fourth Generation War.” It said, “In 1989, some American military experts predicted a fundamental change in the future form of warfare. … They predicted that the wars of the 21st century would be dominated by a kind of warfare they called ‘the fourth generation of wars.’ This forecast did not arise in a vacuum—if only the cowards (among the Muslim clerics) knew that fourth-generation wars have already occurred and that the superiority of the theoretically weaker party has already been Scissors-32x32.pngproven; http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/wars-without-countries/

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@Draggingtree

 


 

Today, most find it difficult, and the Pentagon finds it impossible, to think of war in any way except war between states. That is part of the reason we are going to war with Iraq, even though the real threat is from non-state actors such as al-Qaeda. We are like the drunk who is looking under the street light for his car keys; he knows he did not drop them there, but that is where he can see.

 

When I used to post A Lot at TOS on GWOT I kept pointing out the (to me) obvious fact that what we are dealing with is a world wide guerrilla war. There are so many on our side (forget most of the left, as they have no knowledge or interest in war...other than its bad and we should fight wars wallbash.gif ) that IMO don't get this. If you don't understand the kind of war you're fighting you're doomed to lose....see Vietnam before Gen. Creighton Abrams took over, and by that time it was too late.

 

The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One

David Kilcullen

 

&

 

The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power

Max Boot

 


 

How should we fight Fourth Generation opponents? As van Creveld says, nobody knows.

 

 

See Max Boot. Actually We're pretty darn good at it.

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