Posted on Aug 5, 2016
Save Desert Storm and Initial entry into Iraq 2003, the US has not fought conventionally since Korea - are we preparing for the wrong war?
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The past five decades has consistently shown us that irregular warfare is the primary threat we are confronted with. In parallel, we have shown an inability to retain the very same lessons learned in irregular warfare. The issue is training! Often the default answer is that conventional warfare is harder and that one can glean irregular lessons from conventional. I believe this premise is wrong.
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Being prepared for conventional war is what prevents conventional war. If we are not preparing for conventional war, we are much more likely to experience it.
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COL Lee Flemming
SSG (Join to see) your point is taken, and that is the rational often given, but the half a century fact of warfare contradicts it. We have been buying arms in preparation for the next WWIII for 70 years, and in between have fought everything but...
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SSG (Join to see)
COL Lee Flemming - I believe that is proof that all those arms and all that training have done their job. No one has been foolish enough to tangle with the US conventionally, instead they have looked for our weakness. I'm not sure we can afford to be a military that is so well equipped and trained that we are equally prepared for all forms of conflict. That said, look at the casualty rates for Korea and Vietnam and then look at casualty rates for our more recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's hard to argue that we are not effective at winning any sort of kinetic conflict... the problem is non-kinetic conflict.
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I've often wondered what it would be like to not have the air superiority that we have enjoyed and if we would have been as successful if every time we heard choppers or jets we weren't pretty much assured they were ours.
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Sir the 7th fleet still does exercises every year for some of those events,and involve countries like Australia and New Zealand. I know the
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