|
Browse by Tags
All Tags » Counterinsurgency ( RSS)
-
|
I once met a gentleman who had recently lost his son in a car accident. At the time his son was playing football for a large university. Everywhere the man turned he saw his son’s number: on license plates, billboards, embedded in account numbers...
|
-
|
When you are a stranger in a strange land, you need to be aware of, and hold on to, and be proud of your culture. In my experience you can become susceptible to myth and unfounded fears of a super warrior that you have not yet engaged. I was chatting...
|
-
|
After paying some backsheesh (a bribe) to a local official in order to facilitate a business transaction, a friend of mine murmured that the Karzai government needed to be shown a picture of the last government in order to be reminded of how it can end...
|
-
|
There is a huge misperception that within Afghan culture they do not believe in a formal policing system. Nothing could be further from the truth. Keeping in mind that every area in Afghanistan is different, the tribe or Qawm is the foundation of order...
|
-
|
When I was a young Capt in the 90’s and the Canadian Army was going through enormous cutbacks as a result of the "peace dividend" at the end of the Cold War and promotions were down to almost zero, I used to muse about the wisdom of the...
|
-
|
This morning I pored over my e-mail, wondering in vain how to simultaneously action all 20 urgent tasks in my inbox. I was reminded of how diametrically opposed our culture is to rural Afghan culture, which encompasses over 79% of that country. In the...
|
-
|
Would welcome your feedback on the need to address a gap in our doctrine to support implementation of tasks described in FM 3-07, Stability Operations. Our sensing is there is not adequate doctrinal guidance -- specifically tactics, techniques, and procedures...
|
-
|
I was lucky enough to be selected for service to the Government of Afghanistan. I worked with Afghans in the civil service acting as sometimes advisor, sometimes mentor and usually as a worker-bee. I dressed in civilian clothes and occupied a desk just...
|
-
|
As an international military student in Fort Leavenworth, I am constantly exposed to public, US Government and international opinion on how to succeed/just stay afloat and not sink in the quagmire of that perilous place called "Afghanistan"...
|
-
|
MAJ Jim Gant has initiated healthy discussion and analysis concerning the way ahead in Afghanistan by publishing his bold paper "One Tribe At A Time." The level of interest and dialogue it has stimulated within the COIN community is extremely...
|
-
|
In FM 3-24 we stress that in order to counter an insurgency, one has to "identify its root causes." As we enter our ninth year in Afghanistan, I am not quite sure that we know what the root causes are. What started this latest round of discussion...
|
-
|
When preaching the good word from FM3-24, we emphasise that counterinsurgents need to address the root causes of the insurgency in order to come to address the alleged grievances which have caused the population to take up arms. If you don’t understand...
|
-
|
COL Gian Gentile versus LTC (Ret) John Nagl. The debate and discussion in the blogs and other media about the effectiveness of the population-centric counterinsurgency approach – it’s all the rage. Is a population-centric COIN approach the...
|
-
|
On 3 January the Independent Electoral Commission of Afghanistan (IEC) announced that Parliamentary Elections would be held on 22 May. What they did not announce is that although District elections are mandated by the Afghan constitution they are cancelled...
|
-
|
Years ago in Bosnia, I was conducting a pre-parade inspection of soldiers from different branches of the Army. I came across a portly intelligence captain who sported a waxed moustache of a gentleman's fashion that I think was last trendy in the 1890"s...
|
More Posts Next page »
|
|
|