Quote Originally Posted by William F. Owen View Post
but I think it is a mistake to assume that conventional capabilities only have use against conventional forces.
Yes, but in the future we will face trade offs as far as procurement, and are currently facing trade offs in terms of training. So when it comes between the F-22 and more COIN capabilities, or between a COIN rotation at NTC or a HIC conflict rotation, some decision making will have to be done?

I suppose we can train for both, but this might make us halfway trained for both instead of highly trained for one? Procurement is even more cut and dry. Do we buy the next generation of tanks, or do we use that money in ways that enhances our nation building capabilities?

Again, this will depend on what our interests and geopolitical needs are? Some claim that our safety will depend on our ability to nation build, or "shrink the Gap." Others claim that the China's looking big and bad, or that Russia's' on the rise.

Is it possible to have a force that can do it all? Is there a way to train the force that makes them just as good at both? For instance: Could a unit going through NTC spend half its time doing COIN, and half its time doing HIC? Maybe they can do HIC at NTC and COIN at home station?