Quote Originally Posted by Red Rat View Post
More difficult quite probably, but more complex I do not think so. Essentially we are doing the same thing in conventional warfare as we are in COIN except with emphasis on different parts of the system.
Hurrah!! My work here is done... Wilf to Mother Ship, smoke out!
Digressing slightly, but on the difficulty side; I wonder if we put two evenly matched opponents (in terms of military capability) against each other whether thay would find conventional ops any more difficult then COIN ops? Of the 'find, fix, strike and exploit' elements; in COIN none of them leap out as any more difficult to do then in conventional ops, less I think 'exploit'.
Well that's the Wargame Model, where the winner simply destroys more of the fielded force. It's excellent for teaching tactics, if the loss-exchange ratio is factored in. - but the contest is made simple by understanding that the enemy is exactly like you. Why not make them both Irregular Forces? As in UVF v PIRA? or Northern Alliance v Taliban?
With COIN the insurgent has an assymetric advantage in 'find, fix, strike., exploit' but we tend to regard conventional ops as easier because historically in the mid-late 20th century we've had the advantage in 'find - strike'.
I'm not sure the British in Normandy or Korea would have viewed life as easy.