"The U.S. War on Terror in which the current combating Islamic jihadists is just one of many operational fragments has no time limits, no precise topography and requires anti-terrorist operations that form unlimited number of battlefields on three major anti-terrorist Theatres of War: Military, Economic and Ideological."
Three Theatres of Anti-Terrorist War
by Boris Tiraspolsky,
Founding Member of
Modern terrorist warfare is in essence undeclared total war for exhaustion enemy’s human and economic resources. It is de facto rapidly escalating global confrontation between diverse and relatively small groups of terrorist-aggressors, their sponsors, and very loosely organized anti-terrorist resistance formed out of different States either directly attacked by terrorists and/or anticipating terrorist attacks in the future. In other words, modern terrorist warfare is in fact unconventional total siege warfare
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In this type of war all involved sides are using “totality of maneuvers” of conventional and unconventional Instruments and Forces with an intent as much as possible to reduce enemy’s military power, decrease enemy’s economic capacity and diminish enemy’s ideological strength with a strategic objective to brake enemy’s will to resist.
The U.S. War on Terror in which the current combating Islamic jihadists is just one of many operational fragments has no time limits, no precise topography and requires anti-terrorist operations that form unlimited number of battlefields on three major anti-terrorist Theatres of War: Military, Economic and Ideological.
In contrast to the World War I and World War II, where each Theatre of War was relatively independent, Military, Economic and Ideological theatres of modern terrorist warfare characterize hierarchal dependency on each other. Therefore, it is absolutely vital that all three anti-terrorist Theatres will become integral parts of “useful” Operational Art and function simultaneously as ONE BATTLE WITH TERROR unifying efforts of both the U.S. Government and the U.S. population.
It is impossible to deny that the Military Theatre of anti-terrorist operations logically including Law Enforcement and Intelligence, totally depends on engaging operations of anti-terrorist Economic and Ideological Theatres. On the contrary to terrorist economic Instruments of Terror (
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, Economic Theatre is operating with anti-terrorist Economic Instruments and Economic Forces
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Ideological Theatre of anti-terrorist war forms the top of the mentioned above hierarchy. Both, Military and Economic Theatres entirely counts on Ideological Theatre responsible for anti-terrorist ideological mobilization of the Nation. Its realization wholly relies on a presence in battle superior defensive and offensive ant-terrorist Ideological Instruments and anti-terrorist Ideological Forces necessary to withstand ideological Instruments of Terror
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In other words, when the U.S. Military - arguably the best military on the planet - performs successful anti-terrorist operation - this is a direct result of a right coordination and mutual effort of all three Theatres of War: Military, Economic and Ideological. On the conrary, any U.S. Military defeat needs to be looked at first in weaknesses of defensive and offensive U.S. anti-terrorist Economic and Ideological Instruments and Forces. The very Instruments and Forces the Nation still does not have available in battle with Terror.
When it comes to U.S. anti-terrorist Ideological Instruments, let me reiterate what I said many times: it is unrealistic to successfully conduct ideologically charged battle with Terror without an inclusive U.S. anti-terrorist Ideological Education on all levels and mighty U.S. anti-terrorist Public Relations, or rather anti-terrorist Propaganda Machine combining mass media, press, book publishing, Internet, and etc. It is not viable, whatsoever, to win “
ideological struggle” without ideologically charged arts, including “useful” Performing Arts
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Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude: due to the mentioned above specifics of modern terrorist warfare, and without available superior defensive and offensive anti-terrorist Economic and Ideological Instruments and Forces, forming along with the Military Theatre also Economic and Ideological Theatres of anti-terrorist war, the War on Terror cannot and will not be won by using just U.S. Military might alone. It is true, regardless of how powerful and superior U.S. Military Instruments and Forces could be.