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War and Piece — ... three things Bush got right. John Nagl and Nate Fick write on counterinsurgency for Afghanistan. Joshua Keating is writing a daily ...
Petraeus on Afghanistan
The Stump —
The general gives an interesting interview to Foreign Policy: While general concepts that proved important in Iraq may be applicable
in Afghanistan—concepts such as the importance of securing and serving
the population and the necessity of living among the people to secure
them—the application of those ‘big ideas’ has to be adapted to
Afghanistan. The ‘operationalization’ will inevitably be different, as
Afghanistan has a very different history and very different ‘muscle
memory’ in terms of central governance (or lack thereof). It also lacks
the natural resources that Iraq has and is more rural. It has very
different (and quite ...
Hated Crusaders Falling!
Jules Crittenden —
... . OK, enough APprop. There was one bit of useful information in there … the Taliban is not only colossally full of crap, it is desperate to recruit. I hope the hated Crusaders and their lackeys in Kabul are cranking up their own propaganda machine to counter the message. Which brings us to Foreign Policy, with Nathaniel Fick and John Nagl’s myth-busting Counterinsurgency Field Manual, Afghan Edition . A couple of high points: The new counterinsurgency doctrine represents a near total rethinking of the way the United States should wage war. But such a rethinking has never been ...
Hated Crusaders Quagmired!
Jules Crittenden —
... . OK, enough APprop. There was one bit of useful information in there … the Taliban is not only colossally full of crap, it is desperate to recruit. I hope the hated Crusaders and their lackeys in Kabul are cranking up their own propaganda machine to counter the message. Which brings us to Foreign Policy, with Nathaniel Fick and John Nagl’s myth-busting Counterinsurgency Field Manual, Afghan Edition . A couple of high points: The new counterinsurgency doctrine represents a near total rethinking of the way the United States should wage war. But such a rethinking has never been ...
Infidels Quagmired!
Jules Crittenden —
... . OK, enough APprop. There was one bit of useful information in there … the Taliban is not only colossally full of crap, it is desperate to recruit. I hope the hated Crusaders and their lackeys in Kabul are cranking up their own propaganda machine to counter the message. Speaking of useful information re Afghanistan, Foreign Policy offers a lot of it in Nathaniel Fick and John Nagl’s myth-busting Counterinsurgency Field Manual, Afghan Edition . A couple of high points: The new counterinsurgency doctrine represents a near total rethinking of the way the United States should ...
A New War
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan —
Petraeus gives an interesting interview to Foreign Policy. The interviewer asks whether Iraq and Afghanistan are fundamentally different from prior wars. Petraeus replies: We looked at this issue closely when we were drafting the counterinsurgency manual. And we concluded that some aspects of contemporary extremist tactics are, indeed, new. If you look, as we did, at what [French military officer] David Galula faced in Algeria, you find, obviously, that he and his colleagues did not have to deal with a transnational extremist network enabled by access to the Internet. Today, extremist media cells recruit, exhort, ...
COIN of the Realm
Swampland —
Foreign Policy magazine seems revivified in 2009, with a new roster of bloggers--including the estimable Tom Ricks--and some interesting articles in its Jan/Feb edition. I'd especially recommend this look at how the counterinsurgency (COIN) tactics that helped turn around the situation in Iraq can be applied to Afghanistan, by two of ...
Education and Challenges in Afghanistan
Michael Yon - Online Magazine —
... in Afghanistan, it is important to remember a key principle of counterinsurgency operations: Every case is unique. That is certainly true of Afghanistan (just as it was true, of course, in Iraq). While general concepts that proved important in Iraq may be applicable in Afghanistan—concepts such as the importance of securing and serving the population and the necessity of living among the people to secure them—the application of those ‘big ideas’ has to be adapted to Afghanistan. Please Click here to read the entire interview on Foreign ...
Brandon Friedman: Five Myths About the Afghanistan Escalation
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com —
... --wrote in Foreign Policy magazine that in "the past five years, the fight in Afghanistan has been hobbled by strategic drift, conflicting tactics, and too few troops." While Nagl and Fick are arguing for more troops in Afghanistan, they're by no means asserting that such a move is the be-all, end-all. They note: ...
Endgame? What Endgame??
Antiwar.com Original —
... , General David Petraeus, under whose auspices the Army's updated counterinsurgency manual was produced. Go here for a in-depth look at what's in store for us, as presented by two writers associated with the ...
