Iraq war forces Western military rethink - Idiots forgot about Vietnam

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L25376199.htm

LONDON, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Western military powers are being forced to rethink strategy because conflict in Iraq has shown the limits of their conventional armies, the International Institute of Strategic Studies said on Thursday. In its annual report on global military might, "The Military Balance", the London-based think-tank said strategists had hoped new technology would let them target enemies accurately from ships and planes, avoiding protracted ground battles.

But it said conventional armies have been sucked into messy conflicts, often in towns, where they face enemies invulnerable to the advanced gadgetry that was supposed to dissipate the fog of war and herald a new era in warfare.

"Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnya demonstrate the limitations of modern conventional forces in complex environments that demand more of them than traditional warfighting," wrote Editor Christopher Langton in the introduction.

The United States has some 137,000 troops in Iraq more than two years after crushing Iraq's conventional army in a ground invasion. Nearly 2,000 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq since March 2003.

[LynnTheDem]

1. Good. Wanna slaughter people, do it up close & personal.

War and death is sanitized enough already as it is.

If for just ONE DAY the US media showed the REALITY of today in Iraq, the troops would be back home tomorrow and bush would never get another war of choice aggression.

[adwon]

2. 2 years ago they announced

that they intended to repeat Westmoreland's mistake. I do remember reading that the new plan (at that time) was intervention (chasing insurgents around randomly) rather than prevention (the old Marine Combined Action Patrols). Ironically, near the end of the story, an unidentified 'high-ranking' Green Beret said something like, "They're making the same mistake Westmoreland did."

I guess it's just too soon to look back at Vietnam without rancor and examine what worked and what didn't. It's a pity. The 21st century is likely to be the century of low-intensity warfare.