Irregular Warfare "Bottoms Up"!

The Army is using wargames to study the problems of irregualr warfare:

Unified Quest 2006 is a four-phase war game taking place now through March in which Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker expects to refine proficiencies in irregular warfare.“We need to break free of the gravitational pull of our current doctrine, future concepts and institutional biases,” said Schoomaker in his guidance to the participants of UQ06. “Have the guts to try when you think you know the right direction. These initial efforts should be based on professional judgment, not necessary fully developed studies, analysis, and formal processes. Look at the real need, not what we would like to plan for or what you think we can resource.”

They are making efforts to get it right this time:

The UQ06 approach is to work from the bottom up, officials said. The exercise started with a company-level war game that took place Dec. 6-9 at Carlisle Barracks, Pa.The exercise put company commanders in an environment following major combat operations. It put company commanders in situations that were not the norm; for example, they had to deal with non-governmental organizations such as the Red Crescent, Doctors without Borders and other aid workers...

“The reason for the bottom-up approach is to look at the nature of irregular warfare in a complex environment,” said Col. Robert C. Johnson, chief of Future Warfare Studies, deputy game director of Unified Quest 06. “The Army Chief of Staff tasked us to take a look at how we can refine our capabilities in irregular warfare. We are doing that through the study of future warfare and war gaming is the primary tool.”