Hey, let's just call them idiots...
From The Atlantic.
Quote:
They blow each other up by mistake. They bungle even simple schemes. They get intimate with cows and donkeys. Our terrorist enemies trade on the perception that they’re well trained and religiously devout, but in fact, many are fools and perverts who are far less organized and sophisticated than we imagine. Can being more realistic about who our foes actually are help us stop the truly dangerous ones?
Sure, the enemy can make mistakes and apparently uses its most expendable men for its most hazardous, if not complicated, operations. This is apparently what qualifies as insight in open source analysis these days.
We have no shortage of our own idiots.
We have no shortage of our own idiots. The enemy doesn't have a monopoly on stupidity.
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
-Albert Einstein
Mocking the enemy equates to defeat?
Bob's World please explain using a historical example how mocking the enemy equates to defeat? Also explain how boosting the enemy's image, such as your comments do, will help us win? As you well know both sides are fighting to win over the fence sitters, and in my view your approach to doing this is to simply tie our hands behind our back and not challenge the outrageous TB propaganda that they receive with a more balanced view, to include numerous examples of where the TB doesn't walk their talk.
As for the TB having a good strategy, perhaps, but I really think the issue is we have a bad one (for Afghanistan), and almost any group of fighters in the world could give us a run for the money based on our current tactical, operational and strategic approaches. What you list as strengths (our unblinking ISR), etc. are exactly what I see as weaknesses. That type of intelligence is only 25% of what is needed, again it is our overwhelming tendency to find technical solutions to non-technical problems. Our combat is largely focused on chasing HVIs (which hasn't helped us much in the past nine years), instead of focusing on taking and controlling terrain (I realize now we're starting to attempt this, but in my opinion it is being poorly executed).
I must admit you have a unique view of warfighting, and while I admire Young Turks (and not so young Turks) who push new views, that doesn't mean every new view is value added or correct. An argument could be made we're not making significant progress because we have ignored the lessons from the past and substituted them with a new politically correct version of war fighting. I still find it almost comical that the UN, U.S. and most Western countries continue to accuse Sri Lanka of war crimes instead of congratulating them on their victory. Seems that every nation that actually "wins" a COIN effort is labeled brutal, and there sir is the underlying lesson. Winning requires tough fighting, not just in the physical realm, but also in the psychological realm.
The real question - The Atlantic touches upon this
A "boots on the ground" response to The Atlantic article, yes it touches upon other issues too:http://freerangeinternational.com/blog/?p=3453
Quote:
Of course that bring the real question to mind which is why aren’t we beating the snot out of them but I’m going to leave that alone for another post or two.
Plus another example of Taliban skill.
where has good governance worked?
Going with your view it sounds like the opponents are never wrong. All fault at all times lies with the government. Insurgencies have nothing to do with hatred, greed, and grievance (or grievance is the only cause due to bad government).
The blood diamond conflict in W. Africa still exists, because some people actually involved in those conflicts thought the conflicts were over access to a commodity, not about good governance. Obviously that wasn't the case.
The Khmer Rouge arose because the Cambodian government failed its people? I'm sure if the Cambodian government quickly built some roads, schools, etc. the Khmer Rouge would have laid their weapons down, because again they really care about gaining power, they just wanted good governance.
Just because the USSR support communist insurgent/resistance groups in Europe, didn't mean that they then turned these resistance groups into insurgent groups to overthrow pro-western governments. They simply arose from the ground up because of bad government. I guess if the Greek government governed better the communist insurgents would just quit, because it wasn't about obtaining political power and joining the Soviet sphere of influence, the conflict was about good governance. Yet they were defeated militarily.
The list goes on and on. Insurgencies are a struggle for power, not about good governance.