Admiral Mullen 'adjusts' the Powell Doctrine

Admiral Mullen's recent speech seems to adjust the Powell Doctrine to reflect the new reality of non-conventional warfare and non-contiguous battlefields.

In a careful recalibration of well-known principles set forth years ago by a predecessor, Gen. Colin L. Powell, Admiral Mullen said the military “must not try to use force only in an overwhelming capacity, but in the proper capacity, and in a precise and principled manner.”

Speaking at Kansas State University, he pointed to new rules restricting the use of combat force in Afghanistan, where civilian deaths caused by American troops and American bombs have outraged the local population and made the case for the insurgency. That kind of restraint, at the insistence of the field commander there, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, has been criticized in some quarters as reneging on the so-called Powell Doctrine, which favored overwhelming force to achieve unambiguous victories.

Even when the forces brought into combat are clearly superior, as in the huge assault on the Taliban stronghold of Marja in southern Afghanistan that began Feb. 13, there can be a difference from assaults of the past, Admiral Mullen suggested.

At Marja, he said, “We did not prep the battlefield with carpet bombing or missile strikes. We simply walked in, on time. Because, frankly, the battlefield isn’t necessarily a field anymore. It’s in the minds of the people.”

By: Brant