Military Review English Edition March-April 2015 | Page 15
CONTINUITY AND CHANGE
credible ground forces are available to compel an outcome.17
It is for these reasons that
the AOC stresses that American
military power is joint power. For
example, Army forces make joint
fires more effective because they
compensate for enemy efforts to
avoid detection (e.g., dispersion,
concealment, intermingling with
civilian populations, and deception). By placing valuable enemy
assets at risk, Army forces may
force enemies to reveal themselves as they concentrate to defend those assets. In short, Army
forces, operating as part of joint
teams, create multiple dilemmas for
the enemy.
The Zero Dark 30 fallacy.
The Zero Dark 30 fallacy, like
the vampire fallacy, elevates an
important military capability,
raiding, to the level of strategy.18
The capability to conduct raids
against networked terrorist or insurgent organizations is portrayed
(Photo by Rafiq Maqbool, Associated Press)
as a substitute for, rather than
A line of Afghan policemen try to control a crowd during the celebration of Nowruz, the
a complement to, conventional
start of spring and the traditional new year celebrated in Afghanistan, Iran, and other
joint force capabilities. Because
countries of central Asia, from the hilltop at the Kart-e-Sakhi Shrine in Kabul, Afghanistan,
21 March 2010.
they are operations of short duration, limited purpose, and planned
to strategic bombing theory in the 1920s. What is
withdrawal, raids are often unable to affect the hucommon across all that time is the belief that techman and political drivers of armed conflict or make
nology and firepower are sufficient to achieve lasting sufficient progress toward achieving sustainable outstrategic results in war. Today, the vampire is back,
comes consistent with vital interests. Like precision
promising victory delivered rapidly from standoff
strikes, raids often embolden rather than dissuade
range, based on even better surveillance, informathe enemy and leave populations vulnerable not
tion, communications, and precision strike technolo- only to enemy action, but also to enemy propaganda
gies. Although the vampire fallacy is based on a suite and disinformation. It is for these reasons that the
of military capabilities vitally important to national
AOC calls for dynamic combinations of combined
defense, it is insufficient to solve the complex probarms teams and special operations forces to provide
lem of future war.
multiple options to the joint force commander as well
This fallacy confuses targeting enemy organizaas Army forces capable of defeating enemy organizations with strategy. Although targeting from standtions and consolidating gains.
off range can disrupt enemy organizations, strikes
The Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom fallaoften embolden rather than dissuade enemies unless cy. The Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom fallacy
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