U.S. Army 1st Lt. Jared Tomberlin gives a final patrol brief before he and his soldiers leave on an overnight mission near Forward Operation Base Lane in Zabul province, Afghanistan, March 13, 2009. The soldiers are assigned to Company B, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Adam ManciniFrom The New Atlantis:
The term “irregular warfare” has become a catch-all label for those forms of warfare that are neither conventional (that is, involving the land, sea, and air forces of belligerent states using traditional tactics) nor nuclear. It applies to both insurgency and counterinsurgency warfare; it also applies to counter-terrorist and “direct action” missions of special forces and to stabilization, training, and reconstruction operations. The U.S. military efforts today in Iraq and Afghanistan are decidedly examples of irregular warfare; so was much of the Vietnam War. And it is likely that the United States will be involved in more irregular conflicts in the years ahead. As the most recent iteration of the U.S. National Defense Strategy puts it:
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