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Originally Posted by x-factor
First, I think the author should be applauded for being so intellectually and emotionally honest with himself and his audience. Besides being an excellent piece from a practical sense, the author is so eloquent that it borders poetic in some places.
Second, please correct me if I'm wrong, guys. I'm not a trained UW guy, but I've been around a little bit and I've seen it go right and I've seen it go wrong. It seems to me (like the author implies) that so much of the craft is just basic human empathy. Its the handlers that try to "play" (bully, manipulate, trick, etc) people that fail, while the one's who treat people like people (even when things aren't going their way) have success.
Again, please educate me if I'm too far out of my expertise and talking out of my ass. I mean no disrespect to the UW profession, just trying to learn.
As for the Iraq case in particular, I'm going to stick my neck out there and disagree with TR. I don't think you could have overturned Saddam with a pure UW campaign. The RG was not the Taliban.
That said, there was definitely a happy medium to be had between a pure UW campaign and Rumsfeld's plan which was conceived as much to prove his technical/doctrinal theories as to achieve any proper war aim. For my money, the real crux of our screw up was the first month after the fall of Baghdad when we didn't quickly and smartly transition to a CA/UW campaign. As soon as the statue of Saddam fell, PSYOPS and ODAs should have been given the lead to spread out accross the country retaining/reconstituting Iraqi Army units. (I was only in elementary school, but isn't this basically what we did in Panama?)
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Understand that UW is not a profession, is scalable and has many facets. Please read the following definition: Executed as defined you would find yourself in a situation where the citizens of the country have determined their future through their own actions. There is no vaccuum created as with the sudden removal of the political infrastructure. Instead there is a slow, diliberate replacement. Success is measured over time. We currently live in an impatient society whithout the willpower for the long-haul.
My .02
Unconventional Warfare (UW). These are operations that involve a broad spectrum of military and paramilitary operations, normally of long duration, predominantly conducted through, with, or by indigenous or surrogate forces who are organized, trained, equipped, supported, and directed in varying degrees by an external source. UW is unique in that it is a Special Operation (SO) that can either be conducted as part of a geographic combatant commander's overall theater campaign, or as an independent, subordinate campaign. When conducted independently, the primary focus of UW is on political-military objectives and psychological objectives. UW includes military and paramilitary aspects of resistance movements.
UW military activity represents the culmination of a successful effort to organize and mobilize the civil populace against a hostile government or occupying power. From the US perspective, the intent is to develop and sustain these supported resistance organizations and to synchronize their activities to further US national security objectives. SOF units do not create resistance movements. They advise, train, and assist indigenous resistance movements already in existence to conduct UW and when required,accompany them into combat. When UW operations support conventional military operations, the focus shifts to primarily military objectives; however the political and psychological implications remain. Operational and strategic staffs and commanders must guard against limiting UW to a specific set ofcircumstances or activities defined by either recent events or personal experience.
The most prevalent mistake is the belief that UW is limited to guerrilla warfare or insurgency. UW includes, but is not limited to, the following activities:
Guerrilla Warfare. These are military and paramilitary operations conducted by irregular, predominantly indigenous forces in adversary-held or hostile territory. It is the military aspect of an insurgency or other armed resistance movement. Guerilla warfare techniques can undermine the legitimacy of the existing government or an occupying power as well as destroy, degrade, or divert military capabilities.
Subversion. These operations are designed to undermine the military, economic, psychological, or political strength or morale of a regime or nation. The clandestine nature of subversion dictates that the underground elements perform the bulk of the activity.
Sabotage. These are operations that involve an act or acts with intent to injure, interfere with, or obstruct the national defense of a country by willfully injuring or destroying, or attempting to injure or destroy, any national defense or war material, premises, or utilities, to include human and natural resources. Sabotage selectively disrupts, destroys, or neutralizes hostile capabilities with a minimum expenditure of manpower and materiel.
Intelligence Activities. These activities assess areas of interest ranging from political and military personalities to the military capabilities of friendly and adversary forces. SOF perform intelligence activities ranging from developing information critical to planning and conducting operations, to assessing the capabilities and intentions of indigenous and coalition forces.
Unconventional Assisted Recovery (UAR). These operations consist of UW forces establishing and operating unconventional assisted recovery mechanisms and unconventional assisted recovery teams. UAR operations are designed to seek out, contact, authenticate, and support military and other selected personnel as they move from an adversary-held, hostile, or sensitive area to areas under friendly control.