Irregular Warfare Vs Nuclear War Essay

Marines have always had the ability to train as we fight. However, our current enemies form of warfare does not relate to our current training guidance. The current form of irregular warfare is something the Marine Corps has never seen before. Simply stated the United States Marine Corps has not properly identified the significance of irregular warfare and has yet to develop the training needed to fight the modern-day form of irregular warfare. General Mattis said the United States of America has been able to achieve superiority in both nuclear warfare and conventional warfare but is not superior in irregular warfare. Why would he say this? He said it because it is true. The United States fear of diminishing their superiority in both nuclear and conventional warfare has made them reluctant on focusing on the real threat which is irregular warfare. What needs to be realized is that our enemy’s form of irregular warfare was created by the same types
of warfare that the United States is in fear of being diminished.
Why would a terrorist group fight a conventional war with the United States? How would an enemy with no access to nuclear weapons fight a nuclear war? They wouldn’t. So instead they have adapted and are fighting in a way the U.S. cannot defend and that is with the use of cyber-attacks, mass shootings, bombings of public places and public executions and other forms of irregular threats. How can we defend this? Well we must first identify the issue and then develop a plan to counter these attacks. The Marines fall into this same sort of reluctance to admit our ways of doing things might not work for every situation. We as Marines must push aside our conventional ways of training and learn to develop new ways to fight back. The concept of Maneuver warfare does not in my opinion apply to irregular warfare. In MCDP-1 Warfighting it states that maneuver warfare seeks
to shatter the enemy’s cohesion through rapid, focused and unexpected actions which create a chaotic situation with which the enemy cannot cope. To me that sounds a lot like what our enemy is currently doing to us in the form of irregular attacks especially on United States soil. With that we have yet to definitively establish a form of training to counter our enemies attacks. Without a proper way to train our Marines to fight our enemy we cannot and will not win. In the irregular warfare: Countering irregular threats joint operating concept (JOC) version 2.0 written by Admiral Eric Olsen and General James Mattis it says that there are principally five activities or operations that are undertaken in sequence, in parallel, or in blended form in a coherent campaign to address irregular threats: counterterrorism, unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, counterinsurgency, and stability operations. Not one of these forms of operations are discussed in the MCDP-1 warfighting not only that the term irregular warfare isn’t either. How are we as Marines supposed to train and prepare for our enemy if our own doctrine does not acknowledge these? The answer is we learn as we go. In the JOC it gives us the guidance needed to properly identify the steps needed to counter irregular threats. In identifying those steps, we then can create a form of training to prepare us for our enemy. Those steps are to prevent, deter, disrupt or defeat irregular threats. This guidance is similar to that of the two forms or warfare specified in the MCDP-1 maneuver and attrition warfare. To prevent you must first understand the current issues that might bring on an irregular threat. To deter we must understand the nature of the leadership their motivations and their means of communicating. Disrupting to defeat he enemy is basically limiting the effectiveness of the attack and identifying the causes and conditions the enemy may need to succeed.
MCDP-1 warfighting does not provide a Marine the tools needed to fight in today’s day and age. It does provide guidance if we are ever to go back to the way we fought in the past but for right now it’s useless. It is just another form of information shoved down our throats because that’s the way we have always done it. To succeed and move forward we must first be able to identify the problem and the Marine Corps has yet to do that. Until we acknowledge that irregular warfare is our most current biggest threat we will continue to be one step behind our enemy. It all starts with the changing of MCDP-1. Like G.I Joe said after every episode knowing is half the battle, and until the United States Marine Corps properly identifies the significance of irregular warfare they will never develop the training needed to fight the modern-day form of irregular warfare.