ABSTRACT

Professional officers, politicians and the general public have long agreed that the US military's primary mission (its only mission, some would argue) is to fight and win the nation's wars. By ‘war’ they mean a conventional conflict between regular armed forces along clearly delineated lines of battle. Unconventional conflict, fraught with ambiguity and rife with problems for regular forces, was at best an inconvenience and at worst a major distraction from their proper mission. When unconventional operations cannot be avoided, they should be gotten over quickly or, better yet, left to Special Forces, whose mission list includes all those activities the regulars wish to avoid.