Some may say this would have been the result if we’d had more troops in Iraq in the first place. But the cause of these declining numbers is more likely to have been the switch in tactics, from conventional to counterinsurgency–which is, in itself, the wave of the immediate future of American war. Some contrarians are even calling it the most successful military campaign in history. Hope that lasts.
Via Instapundit
My Air Force careerist father must be rolling over in his grave at Arlington. But there’s some new sense in the old idea:
"Does the United States Air Force (USAF) fit into the post–September 11 world, a world in which the military mission of U.S. forces focuses more on counterterrorism and counterinsurgency? Not very well. Even the new counterinsurgency manual authored in part by Gen. David H. Petraeus, specifically notes that the excessive use of airpower in counterinsurgency conflict can lead to disaster."
I still remember calling in an F-4 one afternoon in Viet Nam and watching it lob a 250-pounder a trifle off-target. Which, with 250 pounds of high explosive, is not really a trifle. More like a disaster.
Via War Is Boring
UPDATE: A good, if perhaps unnecessarily complicated, analysis, tending to disagree. More on AF arrogance at Op-For, which notes that the price of one F-22 Raptor would buy twenty A-10s to support COIN ground troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Posted in The War
Tagged abolish the Air Force, counterinsurgency, excessive use of airpower
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