Media-Enabled Insurgency as a Revolution in Military Affairs

The enemy in Iraq has been able to use small, tactically insignificant attacks, amplified by the media, to erode the will of the American people to prosecute the war in Iraq. This monograph uses the model for a revolution in military affairs proposed by Williamson Murray and MacGregor Knox to examine this new enemy capability and try to understand why it is so effective. This monograph also draws on historical examples of the components of this capability in order to find potential weaknesses the US military can exploit. It is the conclusion of this monograph that a number of cultural and legal factors in the United States have combined to intentionally handicap the US military's ability to influence populations through the media. It is this weakness that the enemy is exploiting to such great effect in Iraq.