An IW “Bottle of Scotch” Challenge

[Surferbeetle]

The ongoing debate over the definition of IW and what it means to the military and the whole of government is creating much confusion, but that confusion is valuable and the debate is long overdue. Unfortunately IW will not lend itself to a simple definition due to its complexity and many shades of gray. Keep in mind that ultimately we're attempting to fix real problems based on our performance in numerous IW environments.

On the other hand, Mao and many others used UW as a strategic instrument, and the primary focus was on influencing various population groups as stated in our current IW definition. Of course they still had to defeat the hostile military force, but maintaining the support of the populace is what enabled them to defeat the hostile military forces. Therefore, the first and foremost objective was maintaining that support base.

Bill,

For the most part, I like where your head is at on this one.

We forget our roots, however, when we think that a working IW definition is within our reach but outside of our grasp. Once upon a time our military forces had to be able to productively fit into the civilian populace most days and then, as needed, be able to step onto the battlefield to effectively fight an Army that was better trained and resourced than they were.

DIME and PMESII are acronyms which bear deep consideration both over beer and in formal settings. I see them as an attempt to formalize what we knew innately way back when...'when your back is against the wall and somebody is in your land anything goes'. There was outrage when we hid behind trees to take our shots when 'Real Armies' used line and column formations out in the open.

I am not yet at a point where I can provide a pithy one-line powerpoint definition of IW. My personal definition is longer than that and uses systems analysis. Our opponent lives in the AO, speaks the language, has time to think, and has a burning desire to kill us or throw us out or both. Perhaps we would all profit by seriously studying our opponent and looking at his definition of IW as well as ours.

Michael Scheuer's book Imperial Hubris (ISBN 1-57488-862-5) was an interesting start down this road for me.

Regards,

Steve