Critics: Pentagon in blindersLong before 9/11, the military was warned about low-tech warfare, but it didn't listen
By Stephen J. HedgesWashington Bureau
Published June 6, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Nearly 16 years ago, a group of four military officers and a civilian predicted the rise of terrorism and anti-American insurgencies with chilling accuracy.
The group said U.S. military technology was so advanced that foreign forces would be unlikely to challenge it directly, and it forecast that future foes would be non-state insurgents and terrorists whose weapons would be suicide car bombs, not precision-guided weapons.
"Today, the United States is spending $500 million apiece for stealth bombers," the group wrote in a 1989 article that appeared in a professional military journal.
"A terrorist stealth bomber is a car with a bomb in the trunk--a car that looks like every other car."The five men dubbed their theory "Fourth Generation Warfare" and warned that the U.S. military had to adapt.
In the years since, the original group of officers, joined by a growing number of officers and scholars within the military, has pressed Pentagon leaders to acknowledge this emerging threat.
But rather than adopting a new strategy, the generals and civilian leaders in the Defense Department have continued to support conventional, high-intensity conflict and the expensive weapons that go with it.
That is happening, critics say, despite lethal insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan."They don't understand this kind of warfare," said Greg Wilcox, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, Vietnam veteran and critic of Pentagon policies.
"They want to return to war as they envision it. That's not going to happen."Wilcox is just one of a number of maverick officers, active and retired, who have been agitating for change.
Others include Marine Col. T.X. Hammes, whose recent book on the subject is required reading in some units, as well as Marine Col. G.I. Wilson, currently serving in Iraq, and H. John Poole, a retired Marine who has written extensively on insurgencies.>>>continued
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0506060166jun06,1,1851066.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
By Stephen J. HedgesWashington Bureau
Published June 6, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Nearly 16 years ago, a group of four military officers and a civilian predicted the rise of terrorism and anti-American insurgencies with chilling accuracy.
The group said U.S. military technology was so advanced that foreign forces would be unlikely to challenge it directly, and it forecast that future foes would be non-state insurgents and terrorists whose weapons would be suicide car bombs, not precision-guided weapons.
"Today, the United States is spending $500 million apiece for stealth bombers," the group wrote in a 1989 article that appeared in a professional military journal.
"A terrorist stealth bomber is a car with a bomb in the trunk--a car that looks like every other car."The five men dubbed their theory "Fourth Generation Warfare" and warned that the U.S. military had to adapt.
In the years since, the original group of officers, joined by a growing number of officers and scholars within the military, has pressed Pentagon leaders to acknowledge this emerging threat.
But rather than adopting a new strategy, the generals and civilian leaders in the Defense Department have continued to support conventional, high-intensity conflict and the expensive weapons that go with it.
That is happening, critics say, despite lethal insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan."They don't understand this kind of warfare," said Greg Wilcox, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, Vietnam veteran and critic of Pentagon policies.
"They want to return to war as they envision it. That's not going to happen."Wilcox is just one of a number of maverick officers, active and retired, who have been agitating for change.
Others include Marine Col. T.X. Hammes, whose recent book on the subject is required reading in some units, as well as Marine Col. G.I. Wilson, currently serving in Iraq, and H. John Poole, a retired Marine who has written extensively on insurgencies.>>>continued
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0506060166jun06,1,1851066.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 2:08 PM
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