Boston.com :: Pentagon seeing new keys to victory
By Bryan Bender, Globe Correspondent
...WASHINGTON -- America's traditional approach to winning wars could become another casualty in Iraq as leading military strategists conclude that superior firepower is no longer the key to securing a durable peace.
A Pentagon paper, which is making the rounds to senior officials and was provided to the Globe, says that in the age of US military supremacy, "security = all else defense" -- a recognition that military power is only one item in a list of social, political, and economic tasks that are as important to victory, or even more so, than bombs, missiles, and guns. "War is more than combat, and combat is more than shooting," said retired Navy Admiral Arthur K. Cebrowski, director of force transformation for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. Cebrowski's office produced the paper.
While overwhelming military power will remain the pillar of national defense, officials are reaching the conclusion that the United States needs to place significantly more emphasis on ways to consolidate its victories, which now seem almost assured given the unmatched superiority of American land, air, and sea forces.
But achieving the kind of political victory that has proved elusive in Iraq and Afghanistan -- where popular and guerrilla opposition has raised concerns that the US invasions ultimately could end in defeat -- will depend on a much more holistic approach to war, strategists say.
The Pentagon report says a major element of success is the mastery of "social intelligence" by soldiers, diplomats, and aid workers schooled in the process of stabilizing chaotic societies, and possessing a working knowledge of local culture and customs.
"We must be able to look and operate deeply within societies," the paper says. Also described as critical are close relationships between the United States and international civilian and military authorities who will ultimately be responsible for securing the peace...
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