Rebuilding The Force
Rebuilding the Force:
Unconventional Advisory Forces in Counterinsurgency
by Patrick James Christian
Download the Full Article: Rebuilding The Force
The United States Military strategy is in the midst of the largest disarray since the ending of the cold war with global communism in the early 1990s. US Ground forces are now split between two competing and divergent missions: Counterinsurgency Warfare and the projection of High Intensity Combat (HIC) capabilities to its potential adversaries. Even as Army and Marine brigade commanders prepare for their missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, they try to retain one set of HIC skills while learning an entirely new skill-set necessary for the unconventional nature of countering insurgent warfare. Most senior conventional brigade commanders do not believe that they can do both successfully, and their use in one (COIN), renders them less than capable in the other (HIC). Finally, the sheer financial costs of breaking and rebuilding conventional force units for their (mis)use in COIN advisory missions will certainly result in decreased COIN mission performance as well as decreased levels of deterrence of the remaining political states hostile to US interests and objectives. Given the reality that our military and diplomatic forces will be tasked with operating in both the unconventional and conventional theaters of conflict for decades to come, a rebalancing of forces against these mission sets is now a stark requirement that we must accomplish sooner rather than later.
Download the Full Article: Rebuilding The Force
Lieutenant Colonel Patrick James Christian is an active duty Army Special Forces Officer who most recently deployed as a Military Transition Team (MiTT) Chief in Iraq, where he now serves as the senior advisor to the Iraqi Counterinsurgency School based in Taji. He has deployed for numerous missions in support of the global war on terror, including service in Darfur Sudan, Ethiopia, and Colombia. Additionally, LTC Christian authored a number of professional authors and co-authored Winning Damaged Hearts & Minds, with General (Retired) David Grange and Scott Swanson.
