Generals Push Back at Gates Over Guerrilla Wars

Some observers yawned, when Defense Secretary Bob Gates told a group of officers the other day that "unconventional wars" were "the ones most likely to be fought in the years ahead." DANGER ROOM commenter TB, for example, asked, "Is Gates just clocking to this now? Wow, I'd hope our 'defense' planners were a little more clued in."

Well, you can keep hoping, TB. But, despite the irregular conflicts of Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Haiti, and the Balkans, many of America's senior generals and admirals seem to think that our military is spending way too much time preparing for counterinsurgencies and guerrilla wars.

The latest, according to Inside Defense, is Air Force Gen.
Lance Smith, the outgoing head of U.S. Joint Forces Command.

*“The danger now, of course, is we get so focused on counterinsurgency and irregular warfare that we are not prepared for a different kind of war,” Gen Smith said. “Whether that is major conventional war or . . . a hybrid of large conventional war and irregular war.”
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*The four-star general noted that the more likely scenario facing U.S. military leaders, in his opinion, would be the hybrid scenario mimicking the
July 2006 offensive launched by Hezbollah guerrillas against Israeli forces.
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*Smith is the latest in a series of current and former high-ranking military leaders to voice concern that U.S. forces may be at a disadvantage if faced with a conventional conflict.
*

*That list included Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey and former Army chief
Gen. Peter Schoomaker, as well as Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen.
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*Casey said the Army was “out of balance” and not well postured to deal with the slate of potential future threats that U.S. military forces could face...
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*“We’re consumed with meeting the current demands and we’re unable to provide ready forces as rapidly as we would like for other contingencies,”
Casey said during an Aug. 14 speech at the National Press Club in
Washington.
*

That's too bad. Obviously, we'd rather have out military fully prepared for each and every possible situation that might arise. But the thing is, America's armed forces are facing a big, fat pair of contingencies* right now*. These aren't hypothetical, potential wars. They're real ones, that are killing troops almost every day. Shouldn't our military stay focused on those conflicts, for the time being? If the signs in Iraq are to believed, our troops are finally starting to get the hang of irregular warfare -- after years of being unprepared for such fights. But never mind all that; Gen. Smith wants our armed forces to start turning their attention elsewhere. No wonder Gates felt the need to smack guys like this down.