Another sad and typical story from Afghanistan: A Marine lieutenant colonel and sergeant have died in Afghanistan in what appears to be a shooting by an Afghan policeman. . . . “While this is a serious incident, the actions of this individual do not reflect the overall actions of our Afghan partners,” said Marine Maj. [...]
Posts Tagged ‘counterinsurgency’
Dancing With the Devil
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged afghanistan, counterinsurgency, foreign policy, Military, strategy, USMC on 18 May 2011 | 3 Comments »
The Tail Wagging the Dog
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged afghanistan, Blasphemy, counterinsurgency, Free Speech, Koran, Koran Burning, Petraeus, Terry Jones on 5 Apr 2011 | 6 Comments »
One problem with our “hearts and minds” campaign in Afghanistan is the centrality of Islam in the land where we are waging a nation building effort. We are trying to export American style institutions and values, but these often run headlong into the Islamic obsession with respect. Western freedoms and Islamic law are incompatible, not least [...]
Afghanistan: What is Progress?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged afghanistan, Bing West, counterinsurgency, Military, Politics, strategy on 7 Mar 2011 | 9 Comments »
I’m really amazed, frankly, that for ten years the commanders of US efforts have said that “we’re making progress” as things seem, more or less, not to have changed much after the bulk of al Qaeda fled into Pakistan’s western tribal regions in early 2002. Retired Marine Bing West’s new book looks very interesting. He [...]
Obama: Bad War Leader
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged afghanistan, Civil Military Relations, counterinsurgency, Iraq, Leadership, Military, obama, Woodward on 2 Oct 2010 | 2 Comments »
I was perusing the Washington Post’s excerpts of Bob Woodward’s new book on Obama’s decision temporarily to add 30,000 troops to the Afghanistan campaign. A few things are rather striking to me, and they reveal Obama’s defects as a leader. First, Obama is completely ambivalent about the mission and the troop increase in Afghanistan. This [...]
Lions Led by Donkeys
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged afghanistan, Bush, counterinsurgency, Military, Nation Building, obama, strategy, tactics on 1 Oct 2010 | 4 Comments »
That’s what they used to say about World War I: you had armies of lions led by donkies. In Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s clear that the grand strategy–democratic nation-building in the Muslim world–will do little to make us safer from terrorism and requires an impossible tutelage of proud, xenophobic Muslims by secularized America and its [...]
Obama’s Iraq Policy
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged afghanistan, al qaeda, counterinsurgency, Counterterrorism, Iraq, Military, Nation Building, obama on 1 Sep 2010 | 2 Comments »
I read (but did not watch) the President’s speech on Iraq. Of all the things he has done as President, stopping our mindless “stay the course” approach in Iraq has been something I generally approve. I also think it’s a testament to his relative moderation on foreign policy that our withdrawal has been orderly. I [...]
Do You Know What Afghans Want?
Posted in Military Strategy, tagged Aghanistan, counterinsurgency, John Lukacs, Military, Petraeus, Polling, Statistics, War on 9 May 2010 | 10 Comments »
A halfway intelligent lance corporal knows that the Afghans are sick of our presence, are united by xenophobic nationalism, and that a great many are skeptical of the kleptocratic Afghan government and military. So the following exchange with General Petraeus suggests a man whose demand for precision ebbs and flows with his desire for a [...]
General Sanchez, Loser
Posted in iraq war, Ricardo Sanchez, tagged , Bush, counterinsurgency, Generals, Insurgency, Iraq, rumsfeld, Sanchez, tactics on 15 Oct 2007 | 3 Comments »
I think it’s remarakable that General Ricardo Sanchez, former Corps Commander of all coalition assets in Iraq, is now pointing the finger at everyone–including Rumsfeld, Bremer, Casey, Bush, etc.–when he was so singularly incapable of getting the mission accomplished in Iraq. He failed to keep control when the daily numbers of IED and other attacks [...]
IED Report
Posted in Iraq, Military, tagged , Bombs, Car Bombs, counterinsurgency, Fiasco, IED, Iraq, Military, Ricks, tactics, VBIED, War on 2 Oct 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Tom Ricks, author of Fiasco, has an excellent series of reports on IEDs in Iraq in the Washington Post. One of the most notable trends is a chart showing the number of IED events since 2003. The number is five or six times higher in 2006 and 2007 than it was in the first six [...]
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