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BATTLEFIELD OF THE FUTURE

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

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