SMH shocked and awed

I think the Sydney Morning Herald is trying to make something more of this ("Brigadier shocks and awes") than it is. Brigadier Justin Kelly, the director-general of future land warfare, made some comments at a function yesterday that the SMH considers to controversial. Apparently the brigadier said "the "war" part is all about politics and terrorism is merely a tactic." If this is actually what he said, then the caption under the accompanying photograph is misleading (it says "War on terror "a tactic"", which is not the same as saying that terrorism is a tactic).

The brigadier went on to note that the War on Terror is essentially a counter-insurgency campaign, which will involve a different kind of soldier for the twenty-first century. The new soldier would need to be familiar with new techologies and the cultural values of the population of the area in which they are acting:

"While success in battle was critical, it would not of itself deliver victory - that would come by winning over the hearts and minds of the local people.

The war of the future would be "out of human control". There was "no alternative" but to engage the population and "convince them of your rightness".

I don't think that there is anything particularly new or controversial about such a position--I don't know many people who would argue that the War on Terror is solely military and did not incorporate politics and propaganda. But the SMH thinks that this is front page news (literally). The journalist also doesn't seem to recognise the origin of the following opinion:

"Brigadier Kelly said modern war could be defined as 'conflict, using violent and non-violent means, between multiple actors and influences, competing for control over the perceptions, behaviour and allegiances of human population groups'.

He said he found it interesting that 'if you take out violence out of the first line, it's a description of politics'."

It seemed obvious to me that it was a simple rewording of Clausewitz's century old observation that "war is a continuation of politics by other means."