Winning the Other, Other War: Winning Military Hearts and Minds for MOOTW in the Global War on Terror

摘要

Waging the Global War on Terror requires coordinating all the elements of national power. America's opponents are behaving in classic insurgency fashion, using terror as a tool to drive a wedge between the ruled and their rulers. Thus, the United States can turn to past counterinsurgencies to prepare for the battle for the hearts and minds of the people in whose midst the terrorists live, and from who the terrorists hope to derive support and membership. The ground forces will be the core of the majority of military operations in this conflict, and the majority of their activities will be what the military terms operations other than war, or 'MOOTW.' Joint doctrine regarding MOOTW misleads joint force commanders as to the nature of the principles of MOOTW, overemphasizing the weight to be given American casualties and underemphasizing the true cost of 'collateral damage.' Using historic (Vietnam) and contemporary (Afghanistan and Iraq) examples of how conventional thinking can undercut efforts in unconventional wars, this paper criticizes current joint doctrine regarding MOOTW and suggests how it may be improved to better contribute to the GWOT.