Comments on: Death from Above http://www.captainsjournal.com/2007/09/06/death-from-above/ News & Commentary on Warfare, Policy and Counterterrorism Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:28:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: mmannske http://www.captainsjournal.com/2007/09/06/death-from-above/#comment-22782 mmannske Wed, 12 Sep 2007 22:47:08 +0000 http://www.captainsjournal.com/2007/09/06/death-from-above/#comment-22782 Hirschel, I enjoy your posts and have subscribed to your blog. One thing I noticed in my trips here is that you seem to like A-10s a lot. So do I. In fact, I like them so much I wrote a book about them. <i><a href="http://www.fndbook.com" rel="nofollow">Foreign and Domestic</a></i> is a futuristic war-thriller about the coming US-UN War and the patriots who rise up to fight them by raiding the Air Force boneyard in Arizona. Of course, the A-10 winds up being the workhorse of the story since they are the only jets that don't have computers (there are no A-10Cs in my book. Hillary cancelled the program when she became president). Hirschel, I enjoy your posts and have subscribed to your blog. One thing I noticed in my trips here is that you seem to like A-10s a lot. So do I. In fact, I like them so much I wrote a book about them. Foreign and Domestic is a futuristic war-thriller about the coming US-UN War and the patriots who rise up to fight them by raiding the Air Force boneyard in Arizona. Of course, the A-10 winds up being the workhorse of the story since they are the only jets that don’t have computers (there are no A-10Cs in my book. Hillary cancelled the program when she became president).

]]> By: Herschel Smith http://www.captainsjournal.com/2007/09/06/death-from-above/#comment-22741 Herschel Smith Thu, 06 Sep 2007 14:04:24 +0000 http://www.captainsjournal.com/2007/09/06/death-from-above/#comment-22741 <p>The counterinsurgency "experts" and professionals, in the main, have much heartburn over the use of air power in COIN. I have seen many incredulous and insulting comments even about artillery in urban settings.</p> <p>Now, this isn't to deny the viability of the right use of classical COIN tactics such as proper governance, gated communities, and so forth. Certainly, all of these things are necessary in a constabulary operation.</p> <p>But sometimes robust kinetic operations are still necessary, and when they are, my argument is that air power (Army helicopter gunships, Marine Harriers, A-10s and other AF aircraft) is part of the picture and can be used assuming sound wisdom is applied.</p> <p>This argument, even supported by evidence above from OIF, might seem simple and straightforward. But the COIN community balks at the idea, in the main.</p> The counterinsurgency “experts” and professionals, in the main, have much heartburn over the use of air power in COIN. I have seen many incredulous and insulting comments even about artillery in urban settings.

Now, this isn’t to deny the viability of the right use of classical COIN tactics such as proper governance, gated communities, and so forth. Certainly, all of these things are necessary in a constabulary operation.

But sometimes robust kinetic operations are still necessary, and when they are, my argument is that air power (Army helicopter gunships, Marine Harriers, A-10s and other AF aircraft) is part of the picture and can be used assuming sound wisdom is applied.

This argument, even supported by evidence above from OIF, might seem simple and straightforward. But the COIN community balks at the idea, in the main.

]]> By: fumento http://www.captainsjournal.com/2007/09/06/death-from-above/#comment-22740 fumento Thu, 06 Sep 2007 13:42:48 +0000 http://www.captainsjournal.com/2007/09/06/death-from-above/#comment-22740 Do you think you may have created a straw man, Herschel? I thought everybody agreed that tac air was good but strategic air was overplayed. This originated with the massive multi-thousand plane attacks on Germany in 44-45 during which time their ability to produce equipment INCREASED. Of course, a lot of that bombing was out of vengeance (and I'm not talking Hamburg, which had some real military value but rather quaint little towns that produced nothing militarily)and a lot of that was "We've got all these bombers; may as well use them." But I've seen Air Force people argue against putting much faith in strategic bombing and it's interesting that the B-52, which has "strategic" built right into its name, has proved such a good tactical support weapon even in Vietnam when they finally realized they could use it to wipe out the tunnels of Chu Lai rather than send in those poor tunnel rats. Do you think you may have created a straw man, Herschel? I thought everybody agreed that tac air was good but strategic air was overplayed. This originated with the massive multi-thousand plane attacks on Germany in 44-45 during which time their ability to produce equipment INCREASED. Of course, a lot of that bombing was out of vengeance (and I’m not talking Hamburg, which had some real military value but rather quaint little towns that produced nothing militarily)and a lot of that was “We’ve got all these bombers; may as well use them.” But I’ve seen Air Force people argue against putting much faith in strategic bombing and it’s interesting that the B-52, which has “strategic” built right into its name, has proved such a good tactical support weapon even in Vietnam when they finally realized they could use it to wipe out the tunnels of Chu Lai rather than send in those poor tunnel rats.

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