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Thing is, the vast majority of nations which have poverty, repression, corruption, etc. never experience internal conflict using a strategy of insurgency. I think Westerners coming from the...

Here's an idea I'm playing with as I continue to work on the "reconceptualizing insurgency" manuscript I've been struggling with for the past couple of months.

Internal conflicts involving a...

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I know you didn't address that to me, but have you read Skip Bacevich's books? I'm more and more falling into that school which is sort of neo-Powellite.

I was being metaphorical with the "throw the keys to Chalabi." I simply meant cobbling together some sort of Iraqi government and leaving. Sure it would have fallen apart. But Hussein would be...

I don't know how to make text boxes within a quote, so:

1. I meant if not for the smells-like-AQ dimension of the conflict, we could have disengaged or downgraded our involvement long ago. We've...

Thanks. Give me four years to mull something over and occasionally I'll get it right (marriage excepted)

Well, we did remember Vietnam for 30 years. I really think it was a complex combination of conditions that got us where we are in Iraq, and that they're unlikely to be replicated:

1) the...

He did lots of drugs when he was young.

As I've mentioned before, I think that Joint definition is badly, badly flawed and I'm hoping it gets changed.

The problem is that it deals almost exclusively with an outside power undertaking insurgency in a strange culture. My own belief is that the current administration , for some reason, forgot that's a...

In my Rethinking Insurgency monograph, I argued that many insurgencies persist for reasons other than the dream of strategic success. They become a way of life for the insurgents. Insurgent leaders...

I'd agree with you that it makes no sense to draw the general conclusion that time is on the side of insurgents. There are many historical instances of the opposite--an insurgency often catches a...

Excellent point, Mark, that illustrates what I think is THE key dilemma of the "war of ideas" against Islamic extremism: our enemies are offering their followers eternal bliss and we're offering...

I was reading this story from the LA Times:



That led me to wonder: Do we need to add a second major criterion when we develop a strategy for counterinsurgency support?

Here's what I mean. ...

One other thought. This is completely useless to you at this point, but I am addressing the issue in some detail in the book I'm writing with Con Crane and Ray Millen (Perdition's Gate: Insurgency...

Well, one example might be that many of the Islam based insurgencies use the story of Mohammed's struggles against the unpious elites of Mecca to explain their own struggle against what they portray...

Ironically, Max Manwaring was talking about your "rancho" just minutes before you made this post. Your ears must have been burning.

But on the job listing, we've decided not to fight with CPO on...

Actually, we kind of like listing it as "desireable" rather than "required." That means if a Fred Woerner comes along, we would at least have the option of hiring him. We normally phrase it...

I'm surprised they can do that. Here at the Army War College, we are told we can make a Ph.D. "desired" for a Title 10 professor position, but not "required." I guess Leavenworth's civilian...

They have to hire one first. They've opened the search back up.

I don't think there are any empty seats at the Army War College. The number of RC slots has remained consistent, at least in the resident course (the non-resident course has always been heavily RC).

I loved Larry but HATED to follow him as a speaker (which I did at a SOF branch conference once). Despite his werid looks (black-on-black clothing, hair down to his butt), he was absolutely electric...

And, as you may know, Peter Leahy, Chief of Army in Australia, was one of the guys who helped us rebuild the LIC/OOTW curriculum in DJCO in the late 80s. After his student year, he stayed on as the...

A bit of news--Ahmed apparently backed out of the position and they've opened it back up.