Quote Originally Posted by slapout9 View Post
Parallel attack in Army speak is Distributed Operations. Planing back wards from the Future Picture picture is the same thing I learned and as Ken has pointed used to be taught as Back Planning in the Army. Warden will tell you himself that pretty much everything he has said has been around for a while, he is just bringing it back up as a way forward for our country.
Slapout9,

Forgive me, but I will not be fooled by your statement that army operations are some kind of subset to Warden's five-ring/parallel attack strategy.

Quote Originally Posted by slapout9 View Post
We have never truly exploited Air and Space Power like it could be done and the Army has nothing to fear from that.
I disagree with you twice.

FIRST, If you truly study Air and Space Power, you should do so with an open mind. This means that you have to be aware of the Air Power capabilities as well as its shortfalls. Warden's article demonstrates an unjustified optimism with regard to the former and a complete blindness for the latter. Read the quote below.

Quote Originally Posted by Warden
In other words, we should at least begin with the presumption that airpower can carry out any military task. If we fail to do so, we create a self-fulfilling prophecy and don’t even examine the possibilities because “everyone knows” we have always used bayonets guided by human beings as the preferred tool and that will “never change.” Offhand, I can think of only one thing that airpower cannot do and that some other form of military power can: physically take people into custody.
Offhand, I can think of several things that airpower cannot do and that some other form of military power can: nation building for instance, or conduct counterinsurgency operations in Colombia and the Philippines, or remove Iraqi forces from Kuwait. The most important thing Air Power cannot do is terminate conflict. Sorry, but I do not see how Air Power alone could have successfully concluded the conflicts in 1991 en 2003 in Iraq or the conflict in Panama in 1989.

SECOND, there is a strong tendency to turn this debate into an Air Force - Army pissing contest. Those opposed to Warden's arguments often hear things like "the Army has nothing to fear from Warden's strategy". Sorry, but the fact that the Army has something or nothing to fear from Warden is irrelevant. It does not increase or decrease the validity of his reasoning.