The Problem With Asymmetrical Warfare

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Big Peace:

Kurt Schlichter
May 7th 2011

The idea behind asymmetrical warfare is not a bad one – it just has one fatal flaw. That thought was probably the second to last thing that went through Osama Bin Laden’s mind when the SEALs came calling. The last thing that went through his mind was an American bullet.

Asymmetrical warfare is the type of warfare most frequently practiced against the United States – mostly because there’s no other real option. Simply put, it is a strategy focusing on side-stepping a stronger enemy’s strengths and focusing all one’s limited resources at the enemy’s weakest points – hence the asymmetry. Saddam Hussein tried to fight the United States symmetrically in Desert Storm and in the first days of the Iraq War. He decided to put Iraqi troops head on against United States Army and Marine Corps forces.......

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Commitment is the key to defeating asymmetrical warfare. A strategy designed to achieve its ends by convincing its opponent to allow those ends to be achieved fails the moment the opponent chooses not to cooperate. On 9/11, America chose not to cooperate.

For a decade, America employed the full weight of its power against its jihadi enemies. Thousands of them are dead, with others imprisoned. Iraq is a democracy, and Afghanistan no longer a staging area. Jihadis wandering through Yemen, Somalia and other loathsome places look nervously to the sky for the Hellfire that can come at any moment bearing a one-way ticket to virginville.

They counted on America giving up; we didn’t. Strategic patience and commitment defeat asymmetrical strategies. Osama bin Laden found that out last week – in the seconds just before a Navy SEAL who may not have even graduated from high school when bin Laden sent his minions to bomb the U.S.S. Cole pulled the trigger.



FYI for those interested More on The Battle of 73 EASTING