Page 351 - Airpower in 20th Century - Doctrines and Employment

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u.s. air forCe doCtrine:. tHe searCH for deCisive effeCt

logical superiority and well-trained force, that the dream of winning a conventional
state on state war with airpower in the lead role has become a reality. It is a doctrine
for war that requires such complex and expensive technology that only the United
States can realistically apply this doctrine. Yet, in the ongoing counterinsurgency
campaigns in Afghanistan since 2001 and in Iraq since 2003, the technological ad-
vantage does not play the same central role as it might in conventional war. Cur-
rent conflicts against non state forces offer no strategic target set or industrial nodes
whose destruction will cripple the enemy forces. If unconventional wars are the norm
for the coming decades, American airmen will have a frustrating future.