"Decisive Force," on the other hand, implies delivering massive enough force to prevail. Decisive means using force with plenty of margin for error. Force implies a traditional "force-on-force" and attrition approach. This concept does not exclude psychological and other complementary damage imposition techniques to enhance the application of force; they have been used throughout the history of warfare. But such non-destructive means would have an ancillary role. Military force would be applied in a purer form and targeted primarily against the military capabilities of an opponent. Time is not always an essential component. As in _Desert Shield/Storm_, enough time would have to be allowed to assemble an overwhelming force. Such a luxury is not always feasible. The differences become clearer if broken down into their essential elements: Elements Rapid Dominance Decisive Force -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Objective Control the adversary's will, Prevail militarily and perceptions, and understanding decisively against a set of opposing capabilities defined by the MRC Use of Control the adversary's will, Unquestioned ability to Force perceptions, and understanding prevail militarily over an and literally make an adversary opponent's forces and based impotent to act or react against the adversary's capabilities Force Size Could be smaller than Large, highly trained, and opposition, but with decisive well-equipped. Materially edge in technology, training, overwhelming and technique Scope All encompassing Force against force (and supporting capability) Speed Essential Desirable Casualties Could be relatively few in Potentially higher on both number on both sides sides Technique Paralyze, shock, unnerve, deny, Systematic destruction of destroy military capability. applicable in some situations Four general categories of core characteristics and capabilities have been identified that Rapid Dominance-configured mission capability packages must embrace. These are identified briefly and discussed in later chapters.