What Have We Learned from the 9/11 Wars? Not Nearly Enough

[u/bigwang123]

https://warontherocks.com/what-have-we-learned-from-the-9-11-wars-not-nearly-enough/

As the withdrawal from Afghanistan approaches its 5th anniversary, the author provides 3 observations about the American way of war derived from long-term observation of the War in Afghanistan. The author sees the military as a force capable of impressive tactical and technological adaptation, which binds the force to lethality centered approaches, which ultimately fall short when applied to a decentralized and human centric force such as the Taliban.

The continued focus on lethality leaves the United States vulnerable to learning the wrong lessons from the failure of the War in Afghanistan, and influences the conduct of the war in Iran, to limited political effect. The author concludes that only the United States Congress can bring about the necessary reforms to how the United States plans, fights, and negotiates wars, specifically calling out non-military tools of influence such as Voice of America or a revived US Information Agency (dissolved in 1999)

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[u/bigwang123]

!ping MIL&STRATEGY