War Fighting Essay

Running head: WARFIGHTING1
Warfighting: A Reflection
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WARFIGHTING

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Warfighting: A Reflection
The decision to go to war could be made up of a few words. The details of war could just be as simple. The actual developments and consequences of war are, at best, significant and not just as clear upon unfolding. If anything, war, I have come to understand, is a friction of wills of opposing armed organizations an ultimate end of which is to bend’s an enemy’s will (U.S. Marine Corps, 1997). The function of war planning might delude into an all too clear path to war and victory. In practice, however, war involves much more detail – and, for that matter, much more human input and exceptional degrees of commitment to mission – making defined less by certainty and more by uncertainty, fluidity, disorder, complexity, as well as violence and danger. The path from contemplating to actually going to war is, in fact, a long one which might not start by policy making and ends by operational and tactical activities during war. Indeed, war is a complex enterprise which, despite all required speed and focus, needs a deep strategic insight in order to bring into one or a very few focused aims means all war activities are carried out. Specifically, whilst combat power is an essential in modern warfare, firepower alone is not enough since failing to clearly identify centers of gravity and critical vulnerabilities simply means diffusing such enormous firepower. Moreover, part of war planning is to coordinate strategic, operational and tactical activities such as to optimize all activities and make most effective processes and functions involved. Conversely, if an enemy's critical vulnerabilities are hard to identify, creating and exploiting opportunity is an inevitabl...