The strategy-free wars the US is fighting.
If you’re a conspiracy theorist, you could say that this is all part of a cunning plan to spread chaos. This, however, ignores the fact that the costs in both blood and treasure are enormous and far outweigh any benefits the USA might theoretically derive from such chaos. It’s also pretty obvious that people like Mattis really want to win all these wars.
Their problem is that they’ve got themselves deep into situations they don’t understand and can’t control, but they can’t extricate themselves without looking bad. So, they just keep digging themselves in deeper and spreading the list of enemies in the hope that they can find a solution by going in a different direction.
As I’ve mentioned before, the first principle of war is selection and maintenance of the aim. If Mattis wants a strategy, he needs to select and maintain a single, clear objective. So far, the United States hasn’t....There are also political constraints. The American public is tired of foreign adventurism with no lasting results, so now US politicians are reluctant to write the generals a blank check without an exit strategy.
Both war on terror, the war on drugs and the war on poverty have failed because it is impossible to make war on a concept. Such wars end up being strategy-free and with no exit strategy, endless.
Irrussianality
Strategy-free time
Paul Robinson | Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa
