John Chafee Quotes

Irregular war is far more intellectual than a bayonet charge.

I believe that this is a different war than America has ever fought in the past. It is a non-conventional war. It means that you've got to use every tool you've got available to you.

Time and again, attempts by machine-age armies to impose their will on irregular forces supported by a sympathetic population failed.

Guerrilla war is a kind of war waged by the few but dependent on the support of many.

Twenty-first century war adds new risks: more and more often there are no front lines, no central command, no rules of engagement - only a chaotic collision of politics, power, faith and bloodlust. Victims are as likely to be civilians as soldiers.

We can no longer apply the classic criteria to clearly determine whether and when we should use military force. We are waging war in Afghanistan, for example, but it's an asymmetrical war where the enemies are criminals instead of soldiers.

The guerrilla wins if he does not lose. The conventional army loses if it does not win.

The combat man isn't the same clean-cut lad because you don't fight a kraut by Marquis of Queensberry rules. You shoot him in the back, you blow him apart with mines, you kill or maim him the quickest and most effective way you can with the least danger to yourself. He does the same to you.

Clearly-drawn front lines have become a thing of the past due to complex locations with ubiquitous enemy threats.

Demoralize the enemy from within by surprise, terror, sabotage, assassination. This is the war of the future.

In this kind of war a natural gap exists between the expectations of the of the politicians, of the public opinion, of the press and the real capacity of the armed forces to deliver. The gap is a characteristic of this kind of war. The gap is related the four dimensions: To the duration of the war; to the number of casualties; to the damage to the innocent civilians on the other side; and, what is more important, is the solution to the problem of the question of whether or not a decisive victory can or cannot be achieved.

Warfare evolves. It changes as a result of technology. It changes as the culture changes.

That war will never be won militarily.

The conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerilla wins if he does not lose.

We fought a military war; our opponents fought a political one… The North Vietnamese used their armed forces the way a bull-fighter uses his cape — to keep us lunging in areas of marginal political importance.

Throughout most of our species’ long and bloody slog, warfare has primarily been carried out by bands of loosely organized, ill-disciplined, and lightly armed volunteers who distained open battle in favor of stealthy raids and ambushes: the strategies of both tribal warriors and modern guerrillas and terrorists. In fact, conventional warfare is the relatively recent invention.

The consequences of U. S. superiority is that its opponents, both state and non-state actors, will have little choice but to resort to guerilla tactics and urban warfare because they simply cannot confront U. S. forces head on..

Our enemies should take note. Arial attacks, stupendous in their mass effect, surprise, terror, sabotage, assassination from within, the murder of leading men, overwhelming attacks on all weak points in the enemies defense, sudden attacks, all in the same second without regard for reserves or losses.

Unconventional warfare needs to remain the heart and soul of U.S. Special Operations Command and component commands.

There is in guerrilla warfare no such thing as a decisive battle; there is nothing comparable to the fixed, passive defense that characterizes orthodox war.

In Afghanistan this week, outnumbered Northern Alliance rebels on horseback defeated Taliban forces armed with tanks. Experts say the victory is just like the story of David and Goliath and David's friend, the Stealth Bomber.

Desert Storm seemingly reversed one of the principal lessons of Vietnam—namely that excessive reliance on technology in war is a recipe for disaster.

The aim of war now is not to defeat your enemy – that’s probably impossible – but to change the way he and his supporters think.

If we were fighting an army, the work would be comparatively easy. We are fighting a secret revolutionary organization.

… losing hearts and minds can mean losing a war …