“Preparing for Tomorrow’s Conflicts”

 Lewis and Clark College is holding its 47^th Annual International Affairs Symposium. Last night’s (4/6) topic was “The War’s to Come: Preparing for Tomorrow’s Conflicts.” The two speakers were General (retired) Anthony Zinn (wiki here) and Lt. Col. Gian P. Gentile, professor of history at West Point.

Given scarce public resources, there is a conflict raging in the Pentagon between the advocates of big weapons systems to prepare for a conventional war against a near peer (think China or Russia) and the advocates of putting more resources into the wars we are in now (think Iraq and Afghanistan) and the likely ones to come like them. The two speakers did, in nuanced ways, each represent different sides in this insider conflict. Lt. Col Gentile argue for building the army as “a general fighting force” and not one too focused on counterinsurgency and nation building. General Zinni said what “threatens us the most is instability” in spots around the world. The effects of these instability spots are both large migration flows and harboring of terrorists. We “do not have the option to ignore” them any more. But he also said the “military is not designed or capable of building social, political or economic institutions.”

Tom Ricks covered it here.

General Zinni also spoke eloquently of the failures of the Bush political appointees to follow the military's plans for the Iraq War, especially the failure to have enough troops after the initial invasion.

 Given my interest in language immersion programs, I was instantly interested when General Zinni spoke briefly of his living with a Vietnamese family while serving in Vietnam. A google search turned up more details (here):

As a young lieutenant in my first tour of duty in Vietnam, I was as an advisor to the Vietnamese Marines. To prepare for that I had to learn the Vietnamese language, taught to us by Vietnamese families in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in the course I went through. They not only taught us language but taught us much about the culture. When I went there I was immersed in the culture, in the society, we wore the uniforms of the Vietnamese, I rarely saw another American. We lived amongst the people, they had a quartering act, for example, so when we were in operations around the villages we literally moved in with the families and the villagers. I came away from that experience a year later having seen a different war than my colleagues who were with U.S. units and operating in a bubble of isolation within the culture, society. I saw the war from the perspective of the Vietnamese people, and I saw a much different war. I saw in many ways that it certainly wasn't going to be determined by just military successes. You know, we won every battle on the so-called battlefield and still did not win the war.

I wonder how many young Marine officers get that kind of experience now?

Comments

[christian louboutin]

As a young lieutenant in my first tour of duty in Vietnam, I was as an advisor to the Vietnamese Marines. To prepare for that I had to learn the V

[Pandora Charms]

round the villages we literally moved in with the families and the villagers. I came away from that experience a year later having seen a different war than my colleagues who were with U.S. units and operating in a bubble