The Long War: The United States as a Self-Inflicted Wound

  • By Anthony H. Cordesman
    Mar 13, 2007

    Key Self-Inflicted Wounds

     

    • Fight long wars with short term, partial and inadequate solutions.
    • Underestimate risks, benefits, options like diplomacy, containment, deterrence.
    • Fight the war we want, rather than the war we face: No real strategy for conflict termination and grand strategy.
    • Deny the scale and nature of civil tensions and conflict: Sectarian, ethnic, tribal, economic, and governance.
    • Confuse counterinsurgency with stability operations and nation building.
    • Ethnocentricity: “Democracy” versus governance and local culture, and values.
    • Underestimate the resources required and under-react as crisis or conflict develops.
    • Deny the seriousness of the situation as it develops to Congress, American people, and ourselves.
    Programs
    Burke Chair in Strategy, Burke Chair on Lessons of War, Burke Chair on Terrorism and Counterterrorism, Burke Chair on U.S. Strategic and Defense Efforts
    Topics
    Defense and Security
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The Long War: The United States as a Self-Inflicted Wound
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The Long War: The United States as a Self-Inflicted Wound

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Anthony H. Cordesman