Low Intensity Conflict?

[bigtree]

A senior U.S. military official said on Saturday U.S. troops rotating into Iraq will have fewer soldiers, helicopters and tanks and less artillery but should be more mobile and better suited to deal with guerrillas. (Less is more in Bush's small mind.)

By the time power is handed over in June, the U.S. military presence will be downsized to around 105,000 from about 130,000, the official said.

The official said though numbers were being cut, soldiers would be better equipped for the low intensity conflict the military expects to face in the next six to 12 months.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4152546&pageNumber=1


Confirmation of the four American casualties brought the death toll to 500 since the invasion of Iraq began on March 20 last year.

At least 115 soldiers were killed in the invasion itself and some 231 have been killed in hostilities since then. A further 154 have died in accidents or suicides, including the U.S. soldier who died on Friday

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=4YYUOTAFD42UUCRBAEKSFEY?type=topNews&storyID=4152546


With no let up in the steady death toll of our soldiers, what defines a low intensity conflict?

[lcordero]

1. stupid CEO-type thinking

A senior U.S. military official said on Saturday U.S. troops rotating into Iraq will have fewer soldiers, helicopters and tanks and less artillery but should be more mobile and better suited to deal with guerrillas.

They are trying to run a war on the cheap again. Fewer soldiers mean longer hours for the fewer soldiers.

[BeFree]

2. The only way for Low Intensity

Is for our troops to head into the desert, away from where the people are.

gawd, I feel sorry for most of our troops, Unlike the "real gung-ho, shoot 'em when ya can" soldiers, most of our boys are there because of their sense of patriotism.

Bringing them home now... makes sense. Ya want less conflict? Bring 'em home.

[solinvictus]

3. Low Intensity Conflict

It sounds like the jargon propogated by Robert McNamara and his doctrine of limited engagement used in Viet Nam. On the numbers, do we have any casualty figures for wounded in action?

[jmowreader]

4. Try this

http://www.jochen-hippler.de/Aufsatze/low-intensity_conflict/low-intensity_conflict.html

[bigtree]

5. jmowreader, you have given me a most interesting article. Thank you.

Some of my favorite passages:

Colonel John D. Waghelstein, former head of the U.S. military advisory group in El Salvador, rightly pointed out a year earlier that LIC was "total war at the social base" of a country.(6). The criterion of "low intensity" as part of the definition thus presupposes that one adopts the perspective of the country applying the force rather than the one on which it is applied.

However, all agree that while LIC is theoretical possible in a modern industrial nation, it is a form of conflict most appropriate to the Third World. Furthermore, it can be stated that this concept can be applied only in cases where there is no direct confrontation between the superpowers, since such a confrontation, should armed conflict actually commence, could scarcely be stabilized at a LIC level. Although allied, friendly or client regimes of either side or one of the superpowers themselves may be involved, LIC theory does not allow for direct conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union in the Third World.

Finally, LIC is a concept that is not of a purely military nature, even though it has been developed and propounded chiefly by the U.S. military. Instead it is an integrated political-economic-military approach, supplemented by psychological, social and diplomatic devices. Without much exaggeration it can be stated that LIC conceptually is primarily a political oriented and integrated policy approach containing military elements - and not first and foremost a military matter.

"integrated political-economic-military approach, supplemented by psychological, social and diplomatic devices."