Soft War = Smart War? Think Again.

• Author: DeAtkine, Norvell B.

SOFT WAR = SMART WAR? THINK AGAIN

By Professor Anna Simmons, Naval Postgraduate School

http://www.fpri.org/enotes/2012/201204.simons.soft-war-smart-war.html

For at least the past decade, the U.S. Army has lived by the doctrine of counterinsurgency with a key tenet being the centrality of winning the "hearts and minds" of the populace with whom the armed forces are engaged. By pointing out a few essential facts, Professor Simmons, author of three books on defense analysis issues, skewers this and the defense intellectuals who have made the doctrine a cottage industry: After misreading the realities of the 21st century, the intellectuals also misread human nature. They have made it an axiom that our enemies, unable to match us conventionally, will always resort to asymmetric means. Moreover, Americans now link our security to how others view us, hence our seemingly abiding interest in information operations and strategic communication.

Americans continue to believe they can change cultures, which the author rejects for three reasons: In a cross cultural contest neither side will buy what the other side is selling, As Americans have grown more knowledgeable about other cultures, so their opponents have about them and with that, more suspicious of and better able to manipulate Americans. Reality three is...