United Press International,
WASHINGTON: The sharp gap between the evolution of the insurgency and the almost endless U.S. efforts to use the media and politics to spin a long and uncertain counter-insurgency campaign into turning points and instant victory has done America, the Bush Administration, and the American military great harm. Spin and shallow propaganda lose wars rather than win them. They ultimately discredit a war, and the officials and officers who fight it.
Iraq shows that it is critical that an administration honestly prepares the American people, the Congress and its allies for the real nature of the war to be fought. To do so, it must prepare them to sustain the expense and sacrifice through truth, not spin. There is only so much shallow spin that the American people or Congress will take. It isn't a matter of a cynical media or a people who oppose the war; rubbish is rubbish. If the United States spins each day with overoptimistic statements and half-truths, it embarks on a process that will sooner or later deprive itself of credibility — both domestically and internationally.
Iraq is another warning that serious counter-insurgency campaigns often take five to 15 years. They don't end conveniently with an assistant secretary or a president's term in office. Again and again we deny the sheer length of serious counter-insurgencies. Planners, executers, and anyone who explains and justifies such wars needs to be far more honest about the timescales involved, just how long we may have to stay, and that even when an insurgency is largely over, there may be years of aid and advisory efforts.
The insurgency raises lessons about warfighting that go beyond the details of military strategy and tactics, and provide broader lessons that have been surprisingly consistent over the more than 40 years from Vietnam to Iraq.
First, warfighters must focus relentlessly on the desired outcome of the war and not simply the battle or overall military situation. In strategic and grand strategic terms, it doesn't matter how well the war went last month; it doesn't matter how the United States is doing tactically. The real question warfighters must ask is whether the United States is actually moving toward a strategic outcome that serves the ultimate interests of the United States. If warfighters don't know, should they spend the lives of American men and women in the first place?
The United States, and any military force engaging in counter-insurgency warfare, should teach at every level that stability operations and conflict termination are the responsibility of every field-grade officer. And, for that matter, of every civilian. Warfighters need to act on the principle that every tactical operation must have a political context and set of goals. The United States needs to tie its overall campaign plan to a detailed plan for the use of economic aid at every level, from simple bribery to actually seeking major changes in the economy of a given country.
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