Written by George Friedman The U.S. military for years has
debated the utility of counterinsurgency operations. Drawing
from a sentiment that harkens back to the Vietnam War, many
within the military have long opposed counterinsurgency
operations. Others see counterinsurgency as the unavoidable
future of U.S. warfare. The debate is between those who believe
the purpose of a conventional military force is to defeat
another conventional military force and those who believe
conventional military conflicts increasingly will be replaced by
conflicts more akin to recent counterinsurgency operations. In
such conflicts, the purpose of a counterinsurgency is to
transform an occupied society in order to undermine the
insurgents. Understanding this debate requires the understanding
that counterinsurgency is not a type of warfare; it is one
strategy by which a disproportionately powerful conventional
force approaches asymmetric warfare. As its name implies, it is
a response to an insurgency, a type of asymmetric conflict