An Unorthodox View of Insurgency/Counterinsurgency
Ok, I've been working on this one since my first tour as a single-by-deployment parent. It's a bit cheeky, but as the old saying goes, many a true word is said in jest. This is the unorthodox view I referenced in the Yingling thread.
Comments and additional "slides" are welcome. Normally I'm opposed to power-point, but in this case, the visuals work -- lot's of good, visceral imagery.
"Babies and Insurgents: Why Raising Children Is Like Fighting a Counter-Insurgency"
Consider:
- Cartoon of parent throttling baby in a circle with a slash through it to illustrate the point that you don't win by physically crushing the baby. Even though you can. And sometimes really, _really_ want to -- sort of. It's that brief moment of insanity, in which we are all mostly lucky for not acting on the idea.
- A Little Rascals picture of one of them kicking an adult. Several shots from Home Alone. Etc. These illustrate the point that they can hurt you to their hearts content. With glorious impugnity.
- A picture of other people smiling over the cute baby. A freedom fighter would kill for this kind of press. Highlights the point that the insurgent is often ahead in the PR campaign, whereas the side with the preponderance of power usually finds itself coming up short on this front. If Van Creveld is correct (On Future War), the obviously stronger side is _always_ going to have a PR problem.
- A visual of a parent holding a crying baby in her arms, Tuesday on the calendar, with one of those thought clouds coming out of her head with another visual of the same set-up, except the baby is happy -- on a calendar in this view it says Monday. What worked yesterday may not work today, and today's victories could be tomorrow's tragedies.
- I can't think of a visual for this one, but it's where you solve one problem and simultaneously create another in its place. If you're a parent, I'm sure you've done this. If you find a route that is not laced with IEDs, it's probably got a few corners with ambushes.
- A corollary to the above -- just walking right into a problem all on your own. Like when you offer something and then can't do it and now you've raised expectations. You just step into the s*&t [FN] all on your own.
- A picture of a parent, done up like a Secret Service agent, doing the throw him/herself in front of the proverbial bullet dive. Even though they drive you crazy, you'd die for your kids. This is the idea that, even when the locals seem to be working against you, you have to be willing to do anything to protect them, so that they don't become insurgents. You have to prove that you have their security and well-being as your priority.
- How to train for the mission: Photo of a Marine PFC/Army Private in full combat gear holding an infant -- if he can keep that thing happy and safe for a month on his own he'll have an idea of what will be needed of him on a deployment to a CI. Scarier, in many respects, than SERE school.
Enjoy.
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[FN] I believe that reference to expletives in military history is both necessary, and one of the great bits of fun about the subject -- come on, we talk about some tragic stuff, let us have our moments of levity. I've referred to one of my favorite quotes, from Chosin, where the Marine, after being asked -- by a female reporter, no less -- what the most difficult part of the campaign was, responds, in a morphine induced haze, trying to get 4 inches of [grocery store muzak] out of 6 inches of clothing to urinate. As irreverant as reference to that quote might be, I do find it instructive. Another of my theories is the 4/6ths Principle -- that is, on the battlefield, all you'll ever get is 4/6th of what you need. The art is in making up the deficit. Exemplified by the John Wayne quote, "That's not all I've got, that's what I've got," from Rio Bravo. John Wayne could get away with it because his actual ass was on the line. It's not for the SecDef to say -- it represents his [albeit possibly honest] failure to do his job. The operational commander gets to make this sort of gruff comment that he'll make do with whatever he's given. [Rio Bravo being one of my favorite movies, with a great musical interlude by Martin and Nelson -- here's a link, but don't click on it unless you want to hear the song, because it comes up on its own.]
http://solosong.net/dino/rifle/rifle.html
Another slide, and a scenario
Ok, you both made me laugh out loud with your responses.
I forgot another slide, and I don't know quite how/where it fits in. But it's the idea that, caretaking and taking a lot of difficulties aside, the parents also have to be a force for discipline in a child's life. They can't just let the children rule the roost -- ultimately that is only to the child's detriment, as they learn later in life that they aren't the be all end all of everything and that some people don't take kindly to spoiled brats. Maybe it's the "law and order" piece -- that is, as beneficent as you must be in certain respects, you also can't be too indulgent, you have to establish laws that must be followed by all or there will be consequences. Maybe the visual for this is a three picture scenario, first one is the child being told no cookies, second one is the child with the hand in the cookie jar, and third one is the child sitting in a corner on a time out (or, if it's not too offensive, holding his bum because it's just been spanked).
On the "take a bullet slide" I've got a scenario from OIF I'd like to put forward to illustrate and see what folks think about it. A fair bit of the grunt work of the insurgency is being done by regular Iraqi folk who aren't necessarily committed, but who need the money, and who don't want to get on the wrong side of the insurgents. You know, they emplace the IED or trigger it, eg. Or they're one of the prayers and sprayers who work in support of the A-Game guys. Now, let's say you catch the guy. What if, instead of putting them in jail, you offered them something better. You empathize with their situation, and you find out what they'd rather have. What did the guy do before? If he operated a little kabob cart, what if you offer a micro-loan or business grant to open a kabob shop? Maybe they won't all go for it, but some will, probably more than half. Once you get some going for it, I think you'd see a snowball effect. Or perhaps I'm just a bright-eyed optimist.