U.S. Should Use Counterinsurgency Methods in War on Terror, General Says

American Forces Press Service ^ | John J. Kruzel

[SandRat]

ARLINGTON, Va., Feb. 28, 2007 – The United States should approach the global war on terrorism as it would an insurgency, a senior military official said today at the 18th annual Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict Symposium here.

“If we look at is as terrorism, we have a tendency to think that the solution is to kill or capture all the terrorists. That’s a never-ending process,” Army Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, undersecretary of defense for intelligence and warfighting support, said.

“We’ll never be successful, we’ll never get there, if we think that’s the primary solution,” he said. “But if we approach it from the perspective of an insurgency, we use the seven elements of national power.”

The general defined the seven elements of national power as diplomacy, military, economy, finance, law enforcement, information and intelligence. Focusing on the latter two elements in a keynote speech here, Boykin first discussed the shortcomings of the U.S.’s information capability.

“In the information age,” he said, “information should be something we’re good at, … and I do not believe that to be the case.

“It is my view that one of the most underutilized elements of national power is information,” he said. “It should be something we are applying robustly, with a great deal of coordination and synergy.

“The question is ‘on a day-to-day basis, who in this country is responsible for information operations?’” he said. “The answer is ‘nobody.’”

Every organization, agency and department has its own individual responsibilities, but there is no central direction and no one in charge, Boykin said. “That’s problematic,” he added.

If U.S. efforts in the war on terror mirrored counterinsurgency measures, then “information becomes a key component of winning the hearts and minds,” he said.

Boykin defined such strategic communications as “the informational instrument of national power in an era of globalization.” Establishing its “unity of effort,” he said, is an evolving process.

The Defense Department’s vision is to synchronize lines of information operations and establish it as a core capability for the combatant commands, Boykin said.

Shifting gears, Boykin then discussed U.S. intelligence, which he characterized as “an element of national power that we’re actually doing pretty well.”

For the Defense Department, human intelligence is “much broader than clandestine operations,” Boykin said. “Interrogations and debriefings, the things our attaches do, two guys in a spider hole putting eyes on a target is human intelligence.”

Boykin said the Defense Department has been working “hand in glove with the CIA” on rebuilding DoD’s HUMINT capabilities. “Now that we’re in an insurgency, there’s nothing more important than human intelligence,” he said. “We need to leverage every HUMINT capability.

“The Army now has a saying, that says ‘Every soldier is a sensor,’” Boykin said. “That sounds like a counterinsurgency measure, doesn’t it?

“If we believe it’s a global insurgency, we have to use HUMINT in every environment,” he said. “We’re moving towards the recognition that every soldier on the street has something to add or something to contribute to intelligence.”

[SandRat]

FR WAR NEWS!

WAR News at Home and Abroad You'll Hear Nowhere Else!

All the News the MSM refuses to use!

Or if they do report it, without the anti-War Agenda Spin!

[paudio]

“The question is ‘on a day-to-day basis, who in this country is responsible for information operations?’” he said. “The answer is ‘nobody.’”

I thought that's the job of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence which was created only couple years ago?

[HIDEK6]

The general defined the seven elements of national power as diplomacy, military, economy, finance, law enforcement, information and intelligence.

What happened to population, geography and natural resources?

[marron]

“If we look at is as terrorism, we have a tendency to think that the solution is to kill or capture all the terrorists. That’s a never-ending process,”

Oh, and you have to convert the survivors to Christianity.

[Grampa Dave]

Do either of you have any history or know any history on this General.

Thanks.

[stm]

I'm liking the idea of FAE'ing cities left an right more and more every day.

[Grampa Dave]

Okay, I have a handle on him now. He caused the liberals around the world to fill their depends when he made comments about Islamo so called religion versus his.

http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?fr=ybr_sbc&p=Army%20Lt.%20Gen.%20William%20G.%20Boykin

[HardStarboard]

Don't know him. Seems to me that all he says is true and desireable and good. But while all that is going on we need to keep killing terrorists (insurgents...whatever), in large numbers, to be sure we have their attention!

[Grampa Dave]

In the past couple of years, we have been "removing" a lot of the top Islamofascist terrorist like Saddam's sons and eventually Saddam.

When their top people and Lts are killed, that impacts them.

Now we must focus on the epicenter of Islamofascist serial killers, those in Iran.

[HeartlandOfAmerica]

The US should kill every one of these stinkin primitive savages that they come across, and their families, in as horribly brutal a way as they possibly can conceive. You watch these backstabbing, cowardly attacks take a nosedive.

The primitives have no downside. don't get caught, great. get caught, club gitmo with "human rights officers".

no downside

[xzins]

We have been saying for forever that the US is lousy at information warfare. So is the Bush Whitehouse.

The problem with information management is that it is contrary to our highly valued openness and honesty.

Managing information means just that.

[o_zarkman44]

While diplomacy is a valuable tool for setting national policy, it is not a element of power. Diplomacy has been responsible for many deals that usurp the powers that can put pressure on rogue nations. So I disagree that diplomacy is a major component of national power.

Like you, I believe that power is in the people, the population, the resources available to the people and the nation collectively, and the geography. Example....a desert nation may have trouble providing food to their army, but a moderate climate can feed an army with little difficulty.
I can't believe a general could ignore those key components of national power. I hope the general isn't part of the insurgent problem solution in Iraq. Our troops and nation deserve better leadership. Obviously when a General places diplomacy at the top of his list of elements of national power, he has bought in to the UN approach of talking to the enemy while they are still building weapons.

[HardStarboard]

>>>Now we must focus on the epicenter of Islamofascist serial killers<<<

The hardware and manpower are all in place. The only question is whether or not Bush will give Iran an ultimatium before unleashing the hounds....or if the first indication will be a cloud of smoke and dust over Teheran and Natanz.

I vote for the latter.

[Shamrock-DW]

"I can't believe a general could ignore those key components of national power. I hope the general isn't part of the insurgent problem solution in Iraq. Our troops and nation deserve better leadership."

I wouldn't expect civilians to know the name of Gerry Boykin. 

General Boykin comes from a long time in Special Operations...from the Special Forces "A" Team to the Joint Special Operations Command.

When you talk about "diplomacy"....well, each "Green Beret" is a diplomat first, a killer (when needed) second.  When you are only 12 guys on the ground you learn diplomacy quickly or you'll find yourself up to your neck in alligators.

Special Operations forces are well aware of the key components of national power.  There are other elements within our military who don't know how to effectively fight an insurgency on a global, even local,  level and are making a few mistakes.  This is already being fixed.  There seems to be, still, a problem within our State Department on its diplomatic efforts.

GW said this would be a long war....everyone who knows anything about fighting an insurgency knew this also.  We just need the ignorant to get educated and the rhetoric and finger pointing would smooth out.

 

[okie01]

I thought that's the job of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence which was created only couple years ago?

One suspects that the job of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is to assuage the "non-partisan" 9/11 Commission placeholders who created the job. Them, and the press.

Somebody who works in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is actually responsible for national intelligence...

[FLOutdoorsman]

He was injured in Grenada, I think a DSHk-38/42 grazed him. He was with Delta then, as a Capt.

He has spent most of his time with them or with other unnamed units. Ie, the old ISA.

He was a LNO with Delta at Waco, told Reno that they couldn't use them to attack the compound, only as advisor's.

Likes to fish and drink Coors.

[BIGLOOK]

Don't know anything about the general but know that we went through Counter Insurgency at Coronado before deploying. The notion was noble and had good results with the peaceful populace, promoting commerce and cooperation. However, enemy contact events in the area always disproved its effectiveness and war of attrition won the day.

[Dilbert56]

The victory will be when the ideology is discredited. When the fomenters of terrorism go to a formerly ignorant young Arab male and tell him how great martyrdom is. If he asks: "Then why aren't you coming along?" the game is over and we've won.

We'll know we've won when, at Middle East High School Career Day, the booth labeled "Suicide Bomber" has no line in front of it. In fact, no one is even willing to stand behind the booth because the last three guys that did were turned into grease spots by Predator-fired missiles.

[Malsua]

25 years ago we called them land mines for the enemy.

Now we have to deal with this "IED" menace.

End this nonsense. Mine the living fuggnut out of it. Let the Iraqi monkeys blow their own limbs off.