
Brains not brawn, matter most in the next war and we aren't being smart about it - theryanator
https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/466679-brains-not-brawn-matter-most-in-the-next-war-and-were-not-being
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einpoklum
So, the Hill already expects "The Next War", do they? Who's going to get it
this time? Or - is it Israel's next war, another invasion of one of its
neighbors and a pulverization of civilians, housing and infrastructure?

The author explains how "The Israel Defense Forces ... handpicks the best and
brightest graduating high schoolers ... and converts them into cyber warriors"

Yeah, great, that's just what a society needs, right? Brainwashing teenagers
into supporting, and fighting, wars? And don't forget - it's conscription, not
volunteer service in Israel.

The author then goes on to explain how the elite of the Israeli economy comes
out of the ranks of those war-minded youths, not from civilian society; and
how perpetual war is also reinforced by a continuing close bond between the
military and the private sector.

And this is the model Mr. Zakheim, and the Hill, suggest for future US
society. To those US'ers among the readers: Please reject that sad vision.

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dogma1138
The odd thing is that Israel’s lesson learned form the 2nd Lebanon war was
that boots on the ground win wars.

It found major shortcomings in its capabilities due to reliance on its Air
Force as the go to solution for any problem and the emphasis on counter
insurgency and essentially border security when it came to its ground forces
made them unable to perform as well as expected in modern combined arms
warfare.

Their solution was to restructure all of their reservist battalions, put
emphasis on combined ground operations when it came to training institute new
large scale military exercises each year in order to have an effective ground
force which is capable of taking over and effectively controlling territory
something that the IDF forgot how to do.

Their opinion was that all the intelligence and smart bombs in the world can’t
decisively win an engagement, only ground troops can.

So in the coming war especially against a conventional or semi conventional
force the US still has the advantage of being the ones who wrote the book on
maneuver and combined arms warfare and having what is without a doubt the best
trained and equipped professional army in the world.

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thrower123
There's a bit of interview from an old History Channel documentary that has
always stuck in my head. Sadly, I think the source is lost to the mists of
time; this was back in the Roger Mudd era when there were no rednecks, Jesus,
or Ancient Aliens on the lineup. Maybe a Modern Marvels on future weapons...

But in any case, they were interviewing a crusty old veteran of WW1, and he
said something to the effect of "You can have all the planes and tanks and new
gizmos, but you're still going to have some poor bastard in the mud to winkle
the other poor bastard out of his foxhole and make him sign the armistice."

