[R-G] U.S. to Raise 'Irregular War' Capabilities

[Anthony Fenton]

U.S. to Raise 'Irregular War' Capabilities
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/03/AR2008120303495.html?nav=rss_nation/special
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 4, 2008; A04

The Pentagon this week approved a major policy directive that elevates  
the military's mission of "irregular warfare" -- the increasingly  
prevalent campaigns to battle insurgents and terrorists, often with  
foreign partners and sometimes clandestinely -- to an equal footing  
with traditional combat.

The directive, signed by Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England on  
Monday, requires the Pentagon to step up its capabilities across the  
board to fight unconventionally, such as by working with foreign  
security forces, surrogates and indigenous resistance movements to  
shore up fragile states, extend the reach of U.S. forces into denied  
areas or battle hostile regimes.

The policy, a result of more than a year of debate in the defense  
establishment, is part of a broader overhaul of the U.S. military's  
role as the threat of large-scale combat against other nations' armies  
has waned and new dangers have arisen from shadowy non-state actors,  
such as terrorists that target civilian populations.

"The U.S. has considerable overmatch in traditional capabilities . . .  
and more and more adversaries have realized it's better to take us on  
in an asymmetric fashion," said Michael G. Vickers, assistant  
secretary of defense for special operations/low-intensity conflict and  
interdependent capabilities, and a chief architect of the policy.

Designed to institutionalize lessons the U.S. military has learned --  
often painfully -- in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001, the policy aims  
to prepare the military for the most likely future conflicts and to  
prevent the type of mistakes made in the post-Vietnam War era, when  
hard-won skills in counterinsurgency atrophied.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has lobbied outspokenly for such a  
shift.

"Think of where our forces have been sent and have been engaged over  
the last 40-plus years: Vietnam, Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, Somalia,  
Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, the Horn of Africa and  
more," Gates said in a recent speech at the National Defense  
University. "In fact, the first Gulf War stands alone in over two  
generations of constant military engagement as a more or less  
traditional conventional conflict."

Gates warned that, for the near future, the United States will face  
the greatest threats not from aggressor countries but from insurgents  
and extremist groups operating in weak or failing states. "We do not  
have the luxury of opting out because they do not conform to preferred  
notions of the American way of war," he said.

The new, 12-page directive states that irregular warfare "is as  
strategically important as traditional warfare."

Defined as "a violent struggle among state and non-state actors for  
legitimacy and influence over the relevant population(s)," irregular  
warfare "favors indirect and asymmetric approaches . . . to erode an  
adversary's power, influence, and will," the directive states.

A major thrust of the policy is for U.S. troops to do less of the  
fighting themselves and instead build the capabilities of foreign  
militaries and security forces.

Indeed, Vickers said he envisions that the Pentagon's primary vehicle  
for carrying out irregular warfare operations will be a global network  
-- already underway -- made up of the U.S. and foreign militaries and  
other government personnel in scores of countries with which the  
United States is not at war. The network is designed to wage "steady  
state" counterterrorism operations. The directive also requires the  
Pentagon to develop capabilities to conduct larger-scale irregular  
campaigns, such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The goal of the network, Vickers said in a recent speech, is  
ambitious: "to create a persistent, ubiquitous presence against our  
adversaries . . . and essentially to smother them over time."

The directive "should have a big impact on resources" as well as  
military planning, Vickers said.

Specifically, as irregular warfare is more manpower-intensive, it is  
likely to shift more resources toward training the Army and Marine  
Corps, which are undergoing significant growth, in skills such as  
language learning and advising foreign militaries, he said.

The policy also supports continued growth in Special Operations forces  
-- elite troops such as Army Green Berets skilled in partnering with  
foreign forces and civil affairs soldiers who conduct nation-building.

As irregular warfare is likely to be conducted by Special Operations  
forces, the policy directs the U.S. Special Operations Command, based  
in Tampa, to "develop capabilities for extending U.S. reach into  
denied areas and uncertain environments by operating with and through  
indigenous foreign forces or by conducting low visibility operations."

In terms of equipment, the directive supports the expansion of  
intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance assets, as well as  
aviation assets for irregular warfare, Vickers said.