Remember my 'More Salvadors, Fewer Vietnams'?: Turns out it's already written!

Remember how last month I was thinking aloud
about how I should write an essay on future force structure with the title "More
Salvadors, Fewer Vietnams"? Well, it turns out it already has
been written, by Army Maj. Fernando
Lujan. It was published last week.

Maj. Lujan, a career Special Forces officer who
extensively studied the operations of American forces in Afghanistan, and also
spent a lot of time hacking his way through the jungles of South America,
called it "Light
Footprints: The Future of American Military Intervention."
And it is a fine article about military human capital. The essay, he said at a
seminar I attended last week, "is about how to do more with less." Not only is
the light footprint, indirect approach more effective than sending in brigades
of conventional ground forces, it also is cheaper, he argues.

There are several characteristics of successful
missions, he explains:

They are led
by civilians, which plugs them into the larger political strategy. "Without
a robust political plan, military action may only postpone state failure or
prolong the conflict."




They are small.
"It's hard to be arrogant when you're outnumbered," he quotes an SF officer as
saying.




They are indirect,
"working by, with, and through the indigenous forces that can preserve peace in
the future."   




They are consciously long-term. "An overly aggressive pace can inadvertently cause
advisers to ‘mirror image' Western methods and organizational structures onto
local forces rather than taking the time to understand the unique historical
and cultural context of the country first. Unless indigenous forces see the new
methods as organic ... they are likely to jettison them as soon as foreign
advisers withdraw."




They are preventive.
"They are generally intended to prevent and contain security problems, not to
resolve them decisively."

Special operations, he reminded us at the
seminar, is "not just drone strikes and ninjas." Word up.