Asymmetric Warfare

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 15:34:10 -0500
From: "90. USAFnews" <usafnews@AFNEWS.AF.MIL>

980734.  Special operations commander outlines future threats
by Capt. John Paradis
16th Special Operations Wing Public Affairs

HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. (AFNS) -- More Chechnyas.  If a military strategist
needed to look at a good model for the typical future conflict, the war
torn republic of Chechnya comes to mind, said Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker,
U.S. Special Operations Command commander in chief.

Speaking recently to about 2,000 Hurlburt Field troops at the 55th
Aircraft Maintenance Unit hangar, Schoomaker said the only certainty in
the future of warfare is that security challenges will be more ambiguous
and will follow less traditional paths.

Looking at Chechnya as an example of future conflict, confrontation will
likely differ from the more conventional and familiar "total war" by the
inclination of future adversaries to use "psychological terror" and the
influence of international media, the Internet and even cell phones to
employ open brutality as an information warfare tactic.

Russian President Boris Yeltsin, determined to crush the secessionist
drive of the tiny, mainly Muslim southern republic, ordered about 40,000
troops into Chechnya in December 1994.  What was planned as a quick
campaign turned into a long and costly war, in which the outnumbered
rebels time and again dealt heavy blows to a demoralized Russian
military.

It's such "asymmetric" opponents like separatists, rebel groups,
insurgents and terrorists that U.S. special operations forces will need
to prepare for -- enemies who won't attack U.S. strategic strengths, but
will instead target U.S. vulnerabilities by executing unorthodox
measures to gain success, Schoomaker said.

"That's the future.  More Chechnyas," the general said.   "We are going
to see more conflict of this nature because it's a much different world
we're facing."