EDITORIAL
The
"Long War" is the name Washington is using to rebrand
the new world conflict, this time against terrorism. Now the US
military is revealing details of how it is planning to fight this
very different type of war.
It is also preparing the public for a global conflict which it believes
will dominate the next 20 years. The nerve centre of this war against
terror is the huge MacDill airbase in Tampa, Florida.
Surrounded by white sand beaches, palm trees and two golf courses
it looks more like a holiday camp than a military camp.
But inside US Central Command (Centcom) generals are planning what
they call "fourth-generational warfare". Centcom is already
responsible for operations in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa
- as well as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - and now it is planning
a campaign that will eventually span the globe.
The man behind what the US military calls its "principles of
the Long War" is Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt. Gen Kimmitt, Centcom's
deputy director of plans and strategy said: "Even if Iraq stabilised
tomorrow the Long War would continue."
So as Centcom tries to control events in Iraq, he is also planning
a strategy for "nothing less than the defeat of al-Qaeda across
the world and its associated movements strung together by extremist
ideology". To achieve victory the US military will have to
change dramatically, he says.
Like the terrorists it will have to build international networks,
Gen Kimmitt says, making better use of "soft power" -
diplomacy, finance, trade and technology. "I'm an artillery
officer, and I can't fire cannons at the internet," he says,
referring to what he sees as one of the key weapons of the modern
age.
Instead, he argues that the US military must try to break down "old
mind-sets and bureaucracies" and build new relationships with
other agencies - like the FBI, the police and the state department
- through what in military jargon are called "joint inter-agency
task forces".
The theory is that the military cannot fight alone against such
a nimble and deadly foe as al-Qaeda, and must build a new kind of
worldwide network as flexible and smart as its enemy. As a result
Gen Kimmitt predicts a much lower profile for traditional US forces.
He believes that will help win hearts and minds, by ending the impression
that the US is occupying the Middle East. "Our future posture
is still being worked out," he says. "But I would like
to see to the number of troops in the Middle East cut to a fraction
of the current 300,000, by at least a half."
The US military is planning a big increase in the role of special
forces, the smaller, specially-trained teams able to speak local
languages - including Arabic - deploy rapidly and work with the
armies of other nations.
Outside Centcom sits a symbol of the new approach and its complexity
- a large trailer park with fluttering flags atop each trailer representing
each of the 63 nations represented at Centcom, from Denmark to El
Salvador. Inside each trailer, a small team of military liaison
officers shares information with their American colleagues and co-ordinates
action in Iraq, Afghanistan and throughout the region.
According to an American general working with the coalition, the
aim is to maintain this loose-knit arrangement to fight the global
war on terror. "We want to make it a lasting organisation,"
he said. "We don't want it to dissolve like it did after Desert
Shield and Desert Storm."
However, America's difficult relationship with some allies after
11 September 2001 suggests that this will be a challenge. France
and Germany, for example, opposed the war in Iraq. Rear Adm Jacques
Mazars, the French representative at Centcom, says French and American
forces co-operate more successfully on the ground than their politicians.
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