Quote:
Originally Posted by Takeda Shingen
Ah, I see what you are getting at now, but I completely disagree. Classical military theory and doctrine were ineffective against modern insurgent warfare. The US military in 2003 found iteslf between a rock and a hard place; traditional theory, personified by Carl von Clausewitz, called for a reduction of the enemy's capacity through absolute warfare (von Clausewitz never used the term 'total war'). However, in the case of modern Islamic insurgency, such tactics only served to create more insurgents. As such, the US military was forced to adopt new methods to counter the insurgency, thus creating a further separation between the practical modern war and a theoretical view of the Napoleonic battlefield.
In short, the theories of Carl von Clausewitz are not as relevant as they used to be, as absolute warfare is a poor method of counter-insurgency.
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Ok, now I get it. I was forcing classical theory in a different environment. I mistakenly assumed that simply replacing "country" with "Islamic extremists" as the enemy would have worked.
Well, lets just hope that another genius comes up with another great work like The Art of War or On War soon