By Ann Roosevelt

The military has to think about warfare in a very different way in today’s exponentially more complex world, thus preparation to understand the “why” of a situation is vital, the Commander of U.S. Forces-Iraq Army Gen. Ray Odierno said yesterday.

“Today you have to understand the cultural, economic, political, aspects almost as much as you have to understand the military capabilities or the forces that that you’re facing and you have to understand how those four things interact with each other and you have to understand the why,” Odierno told the Defense Writers Group.

This is a different world than the one Odierno faced as a lieutenant, captain and even major. Then it was studying about “the enemy,” work up an order of battle for enemy forces and an intelligence preparation of the battlefield.

However, the general said he plans to continue to make the point that operations in today’s world and in the future are “exponentially more complex.”

That is something that pops out at him from his more than five years in Iraq, as he prepares to move on to his next assignment, pending Senate confirmation, to lead Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va.

It’s all about the environment, he said.

JFCOM has, in the past several years, produced two studies of the future environment, the Joint Operating Environment, or JOE, examining possible future trends that the military would need to consider.

“You have to understand why is something happening, because you now have more tools available to you, both lethal and non- lethal tools,” he said. “And when you understand why something is happening, you then have to make the determination to whether to use lethal or non-lethal tools–and that’s something we’ve not had to deal with before.”

That means, the military must continue to study, learn and build what’s learned into doctrine and in other areas so it becomes ingrained in the future of the military.

That’s something the current JFCOM commander, Marine Gen. James Mattis, also has emphasized. Mattis yesterday was formally nominated to lead U.S. Central Command.

Using the Army as an example, Odierno said the service must be flexible enough to meet the nation’s needs, whether it’s asymmetric operations, responding to domestic disaster or humanitarian assistance.

The basic principles have to be trained, he said. Those are the basic principles of “how you organize yourself for a specific mission, how you study that mission and how you decide what you’re going to need to answer the question why…that’s where we really have to start focusing and it’s a different thought process.”

That process is already starting, he said.

Also on Odierno’s mind is intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, which saw enormous growth over the years in Iraq. All the commanders understand the importance of ISR, and asked for more systems, which the Defense Department and others provided.

“I think what we have to do now, is we have to go catch up with ourselves and make sure we’re getting the most use out of these assets,” Odierno said. “I believe we have a lot more work to do in coordination with the Air Force, the Army, the Marine Corps and the Navy in understanding what these systems bring and how do you best utilize them in an asymmetric environment.”

Odierno believes he can provide some help in this area.