Soldiers before Missiles: Meeting the Challenge from the World's Streets

Publication Date: April 2001

Publisher: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Author(s): Anatol Lieven

Research Area: Military and defense

Type: Brief

Abstract:

U.S. military superiority in the air, at sea, and in warfare in open terrain is at present so overwhelming and so obvious that there is little need for the expensive new high-technology weapons systems being demanded by all three services. Recognizing America's enormous advantages, potential enemies will be very cautious about engaging in open battle.

Instead, as Kosovo is demonstrating (and as Lebanon and Somalia demonstrated even more brutally), the most dangerous threats come from the need to occupy areas containing hostile populations; and these dangers are even greater when the areas concerned are cities. This is the kind of future warfare on which the U.S. Army should be concentrating its new weapons development, its tactical thinking, and its moral preparation.