Bringing the Hurricane: The American Way of War
Bringing the Hurricane: The American Way of War
by David S. Pierson
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Over five years have passed since Hurricane Katrina came ashore in the Gulf Coast region and the United States is still recovering from the effects of that storm. In a matter of hours Katrina knocked out power and phone systems, destroyed levees, flooded vast areas of land, destroyed almost 300,000 homes, killed over 1500 people and even changed the political landscape of the United States. For every 20 minutes that Katrina pounded the Gulf States, it produced energy equivalent to a 10-megaton nuclear bomb exploding. Imagine if a nation had the ability to drop a storm of such destructive power on its enemies — not a nuclear storm, but a storm of enormous magnitude. Could that nation influence their enemies’ actions and behavior by using such power or even just threatening to use it? While we can’t control the weather, the United States easily possesses the ability to produce similar effects of such a storm. The effects of a storm are widespread, sometimes arbitrary, and not at all surgical in their focus. Such effects run counter to the restrained and measured operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. We currently wage war with the precision of a golf course sprinkler system as opposed to potential deluge of armaments that could bring the perfect storm.
Download the Full Article: Bringing the Hurricane: The American Way of War
David S. Pierson is a retired Army Lieutenant-Colonel and currently an instructor at the US Army Command and General Staff College where he has taught operational art and tactics for the past seven years. He served in both infantry and military intelligence assignments from the platoon to Unified Command levels with service in Desert Storm and two tours in Kosovo.
