The Face of Future Battle: Chechen Fighter Shamil Basayev

Abstract

AS THE 20TH CENTURY draws to a close, military theorists and planners, in and out of uniform, are considering the effects that changes in global security will have on future conflicts. The Cold War's certainties have been replaced by a number of indeterminate, indistinct threats. As Operation Desert Storm proved, the US military is prepared to defeat large conventional forces, but is it ready to tackle the obscure dangers looming on the horizon? Consider the US Marine Corps commandant's recent comment: Future war is most likely not the son of Desert Storm; rather, it will be the stepchild of Somalia and Chechnya.1 Despite overwhelming US superiority in firepower and technology, a group of lightly armed rebels effectively forced our military out of Somalia by inflicting casualties on an elite US unit. Our former nemesis and Cold War foe has also painfully wrestled with war's changing nature. For the past two years, the Russian military unsuccessfully tried to crush the relatively small rebel forces fighting for Chechnya's independence. The Russian failure is due to a number of factors, not least of which has been the courage of a handful of Chechen leaders. As the United States discovered in Somalia, the Russians have learned that conventional military prowess is no match for rebel forces with skilled and committed leaders. This article examines how one Chechen rebel leader, Shamil Basayev, brought the Russian military goliath to its knees. Chechnya's Warrior Tradition Chechnya today is a place where little boys barely old enough to talk tell strangers their name is Shamil Basayev-a guerrilla commander Moscow has considered a leading international terrorist since he led a mass hostage-taking in June 1995.2 Though highly improbable, one wonders if Basayev ever saw the movie Braveheart, the story of William Wallace's attempt to lead an undermanned and poorly equipped Scottish army in a fight for independence from the more powerful England. During the past two years, Basayev and a few thousand Chechen combatants have largely defeated the much larger and better-equipped Russian military. Although final determination of Chechnya's political status has been postponed for five years, the Chechens have-for the time being at least-won their independence for all practical purposes. The Chechens are a warrior people, one of a number of fiercely independent tribes in the Caucasus mountains. Living along an invasion route between Europe and Asia, the Chechens developed a deep and enduring warrior tradition. They earned the reputation of doggedly resisting any foreign domination. Whether it was the Mongols in the 13th century, the Turks in the 16th or the Russians in the 19th and 20th centuries, the Chechens have never accepted foreign rule. Although the Russians managed in the 19th century to seize most of the Chechen territory after more than 30 years of fighting, they were never able to fully incorporate the Chechen people into the Russian empire. The Bolsheviks-and later the Soviet Communist government-did not fare much better. Until World War II, the Soviets effectively repressed continued Chechen demands for independence. During the war, however, part of the Chechen population sided with Nazi forces in an attempt to break free from their Slavic-Communist masters. In retribution for this betrayal, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin brutally deported the entire Chechen population to Kazakhstan, killing about 25 percent of the people in the process.4 The Chechens were allowed to return to their homeland during the late 1950s and lived in relative peace until the Soviet Union began to disintegrate. In mid-1991, sensing weakness and confusion within the Kremlin, nationalist leaders within the Chechen republic began to press their independence demands. A new local government, led by former Soviet air force General Dzhokhar Dudayev, declared Chechen independence in November 1991. More-immediate problems prevented Russian authorities from taking vigorous action against Chechnya. …