Reorienting the GWOT to Win the Moral Level of War

<p>This paper seeks to examine the changing nature of war and the environment in which it is fought. The fact that America is not applauding its successes at the physical level of war in waging the Global War on Terror (GWOT) and does not perceive the threat to be significantly diminished implies that there are other factors that are keeping America from the victory it seeks. This paper will identify two of these factors as the mental and moral levels of war and show how the changing nature of war and the environment in which is fought has also changed the function of these levels when it comes to achieving victory. The decline of the role of the state and subsequent rise of non-state actors employing asymmetric tactics against states has made the moral level of war dominant over all others and this paper will seek to propose one strategy for America to achieve dominance over its enemies at this level of war. The objective will be to expand the box in which military thinkers rely on for solutions based on their experience knowledge and study of environmental factors to better understand changes in the nature of war and the environment in which it is fought. In doing so it is hoped that they will come to see that the GWOT lacks moral legitimacy and America is losing the GWOT at the moral level of war. The goal is to convince military leaders of the moral shortcoming of the current GWOT convince them of the need to reorient their approach to this war and provide them the tools to reorient to the constantly changing environment America faces in future conflict.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>