Attacking Al-Qaeda's Operational Centers of Gravity

Abstract

Abstract : The doctrinal basis for defeating an enemy is the proper identification of an enemy's center of gravity (COG) and attacking it. This concept is applicable to the War on Terror. Al-Qaeda is an ideology and an organization providing operational level inspiration and guidance to insurgencies throughout the Muslim world. Al-Qaeda's basis of support among Muslims is its ideology - a rejection of the West and return to fundamentalist Islam. This ideology is al-Qaeda's strategic COG. Al-Qaeda's struggle is best understood as a global insurgency with many local insurgency subsets rather than a global war of terror. Each local insurgency is connected to al-Qaeda's global insurgent war against the West through ideology. At the operational level, an insurgency's COG is the population's support, and this is al- Qaeda's operational COG. Al-Qaeda's ideology attracts the population and local insurgents to al-Qaeda, which in turn connects theater of operations insurgencies to al-Qaeda's global war. By attacking the al-Qaeda ideology at the operational level, an operational commander can weaken an insurgency by making it a local affair not connected to the larger global struggle. The al-Qaeda ideology is a decisive point at the operational level of counterinsurgency.