It is disappointing to see that the Marines are attempting to get a grasp on the type of war we're fighting now, while many in the Army are resorting to name calling in a weak attempt to isolate those with new ideas, or new spins on old ideas, but at least they realize the world is changing.

In the book "Army at Dawn" the author notes many Army officers didn't see the need for armor, and thought they could defeat German Armor with good ole fashioned calvary. While we're not that bad today, we're still reluctant to adapt.

Big wars are generally described as conventional armies versus conventional armies, where the focus is defeating the other's army, thus that nation's ability to wage war, while small wars are generally focused on controlling the population (stability operations, COIN, etc.). Small wars (or conflicts) can be fought in isolation (the banana wars, Somalia, El Salvador, etc.), and they frequently follow big wars (OIF, post WWII from the Philippines to Germany [very limited]). Although they may be played on the same field, they are different games with different goals, different strategies, different adversaries, different task organizations, etc. Failure to realize this leads to improper strategy based on the mind set that war is war, such as we saw in at the beginning of Vietnam and OIF where big army wanted to focus on search and destroy, and in both conflicts they came to the realization that a pacification strategy was required (clear and hold). In both conflicts the Marines came to that realization well before the Army. I'm glad to see that the Marines are exploring what future war will look like and adapting, the Army will eventually follow.

While COIN certainly isn't new, and 4GW has it weak points, it is foolish to state war is war, if that was the case then we would have got it right in OIF sooner. Technology (especially information technology), globalism, and an assortment of other structural and cultural changes influences what war will look like. Based on some of the comments on this thread, I can see we still have leaders who lead our men on a calvary (the real calvary, mounted on horses) charge against an armor unit, because nothing ever changes and war is war.