Judah Grunstein, writing at WPR, makes an important semantic point about U.S. military operations in Iraq: [...] It’s worth pointing out that despite the emphasis placed on a light fingerprint in the COIN tactics that guided the Surge, ‘light’ is used in comparison to war zone environments. What we call the ‘security gains’ in Iraq [...]
Archive for the ‘COIN’ Category
Iraq: A Footprint Not So Light
Posted in COIN, Iraq on December 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
‘Awakening’ in Pashtu: ‘Bugger Off’
Posted in Afghanistan, COIN on June 27, 2008 | 1 Comment »
The Washington Independent’s hard-working Spencer Ackerman has attended a bloggers’ roundtable with LTC Richard Hall, commander of the 2-7 Marines in Afghanistan, and comes back with quote-worthy stuff: Hall is confident, [...] largely because the Taliban, he said, has alienated the population through its graft and brutality. When the 2-7 returns home in a few [...]
Gentile Again Attacks “False Chronicle of the Surge”
Posted in COIN, Iraq on June 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Oh boy — Gentile’s at it again: For surge enthusiasts, there is no such thing as declaring victory too soon. Historically, in order for a counterinsurgency to succeed, the counterinsurgent force must operate in a society with a relatively cohesive identity and alongside a government that possesses at least some measure of legitimacy—two conditions plainly [...]
Mosul and the State of the Insurgency
Posted in COIN, Iraq, Mosul on June 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Just a short note: the June issue of CTC Sentinel is chock-full of goodies, including what is probably the best analysis to date on the insurgency in Mosul.
New from Petraeus: Money As a Weapons System
Posted in COIN, Iraq on June 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
There is an interesting notion in Petraeus’s new COIN Guidance, published on Saturday and brought to my attention by the always reliable SWJ: Employ money as a weapon system. Use a targeting board process to ensure the greatest effect for each ’round’ expended, and to ensure that each engagement using money contributes to the achievement [...]
What Are Those Frogs and Turks up to Now?
Posted in COIN, Military on June 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
It’s Midsummer Night Eve here in Finland (with predictably crappy weather), so I’ll have to be quick before it’s time to start the barbeque. I’ll just point the cursor towards two interesting papers on how the militaries of two very different countries deal with transformation in the 21st century. Here’s Andrew McGregor’s study on Turkey’s [...]
Kurdish leadership dismisses de Mistura’s report
Posted in COIN on June 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
As the resolution of the Kirkuk Question is as crucial to future peace in Iraq as any elections, I’m surprised no major news outlet has carried the statement by the Kurdistan Region Presidency essentially dismissing the recent UN report as rubbish: 1- The participants expressed their disappointment with the recommendations of the report and stated [...]
Gentile: We might lose the next big one
Posted in COIN, Iraq on June 11, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Here’s another top-level smackdown: Gentile vs. Mansoor. LTC Gian Gentile, who commanded an Army battalion in Baghdad in 2006, warns in World Politics Review that “hyper-emphasis” on counterinsurgency “puts the American Army in a perilous condition”: Its ability to fight wars consisting of head-on battles using tanks and mechanized infantry is in danger of atrophy. [...]
Afghanistan: Beating the Taleban by retinal scan
Posted in Afghanistan, COIN, Media on June 10, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Carlotta Gall of NYT is embedding with the Anbar-hardened Marines in Garmser and is reporting that the young platoon leaders are putting their Iraq experience to good use: As a first step, the marines promised to provide a strong security cordon so those villagers who had fled could return without fear to rebuild their homes [...]
Iraq: The real state of COIN
Posted in COIN, Iraq on June 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Austin Long has an interesting paper out at RAND on the history of COIN doctrine in the U.S. military. Here’s how he sees the situation in Iraq (it’s a long quote but worth reading): After a near-disastrous 2006 that saw rising violence in most of Iraq, 2007 saw improvement in the security environment, most strikingly [...]
