Air Power, Insurgency and the “War on Terror” - Prof. Joel Hayward's ...

Chapter 11
Hope springs eternal. Despite <strong>the</strong> carnage <strong>and</strong> muddle-headed thinking of Great War
comm<strong>and</strong>ers, one rising star stepped forward with a new set of principles. J F C Fuller was
a British Army officer with a brilliant mind; a condition that was not always welcomed
by his colleagues. Fuller would later write: “When, in 1898, I joined <strong>the</strong> Army, though
a normally indifferently educated young Englishman, I was appalled by <strong>the</strong> ignorance
which surrounded me <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> immense military value attached to it.” 467 He was not
deterred. In 1916 he compiled a list of “strategic principles” that were imbued with a logic
<strong>and</strong> pithiness that has let <strong>the</strong>m st<strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> test of time: 468
1. The principle of <strong>the</strong> objective
2. The principle of <strong>the</strong> offensive
3. The principle of mass
4. The principle of economy of force
5. The principle of movement
6. The principle of surprise
7. The principle of security
8. The principle of co-operation
Although Fuller initially unveiled <strong>the</strong>se principles in a journal article, in
1920 <strong>the</strong>y were formalised in British Army Field Service Regulations. The
following year <strong>the</strong> US Army adopted Fuller’s principles, although adding
a ninth: simplicity. 469
Over <strong>the</strong> next several decades <strong>the</strong>se principles remained largely intact. One notable
addition was made in 1945 when Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery listed “<strong>Air</strong> power”
as <strong>the</strong> first principle of “Modern War.” 470 This addition was an important <strong>and</strong> obvious step
given air power’s importance in all phases of World War II. Perhaps as a way of exp<strong>and</strong>ing
<strong>the</strong> bounds of military thought even fur<strong>the</strong>r, <strong>the</strong> newly independent US <strong>Air</strong> Force came
up with its own “Basic Principles of War” in 1949: 471
1. The will to win rapidly
2. Singleness of purpose
3. Co-ordination of ends <strong>and</strong> means
4. The principle of indirect approach
5. Surprise (alternative objectives)
6. Intelligence
7. <strong>Air</strong> Supremacy
<strong>Air</strong> <strong>Power</strong>, <strong>Insurgency</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> “War on Terror” 191