BATTLEFIELD OF THE FUTURE
Battlefield of the Future - Air University Press
Battlefield of the Future - Air University Press
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PARALLEL WARAND HYPERWAR<br />
Airpower-Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and other<br />
nation airpower-was powerful in Desert Storm . Of that there<br />
can be no doubt . But was it powerful because Iraq was so<br />
inferior? Was airpower powerful alone, or was it powerful<br />
because of the force-the well-armed, well-trained, belligerent<br />
and hot-blooded human beings-poised to take the fight to<br />
Baghdad on land and from the sea? Would not have true<br />
parallel war, horizontal and vertical parallel war, brought the<br />
interactive power of land warfare and amphibious assault to<br />
bear on Iraq even as the air campaign unfolded? Has our<br />
desire for few casualties become yet another weakness ; a<br />
weakness leading us away from sound strategy?38<br />
This last question is an important one when examining<br />
the air campaign's quest for parallel war . Wars occur and<br />
warfare occurs within a much broader context than the<br />
battlespace . Will the strategic context of the future-the<br />
entire social, political, economic, and military gamut of goals,<br />
interests, and behaviors-tolerate the kind of Desert Storm air<br />
campaign advocated? Parallel war is and has been a<br />
wonderful theory . Yet, the move from theory to practice is both<br />
a torturous and tortuous one . Preparedness to execute the<br />
SIOP, for example, cost the United States trillions of dollars<br />
over decades . Preparedness to execute a Desert Storm-type air<br />
campaign against any but small and weaker states might<br />
require an equivalent investment . Would such warfare work<br />
against a large country? Against a peer? Will the United States<br />
ever again have the surplus resources it had in Desert Storm?<br />
Not likely, seems to be the answer .<br />
Iraq was and is a small country . When proportional<br />
silhouettes of Iraq are superimposed over a larger nation, as<br />
they are in Figure 3, the aerial achievements of Desert Storm<br />
appear in a different light . This is not to suggest any<br />
adversarial relationship with or hostile designs against China .<br />
Rather, this perspective merely illuminates the fact that Iraq is<br />
a very small country .<br />
Finally, if information is "the bolt that holds the five rings<br />
together," then information is the decisive center of gravity .<br />
Accordingly, should we not aim all attacks at information?<br />
Even though our understanding of information operations or<br />
information warfare is imperfect and immature, the evolving<br />
137