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Eden raised the point re strategy, which is a drum I beat, but on the political dimension of COIN. Military strategy is all to the good, but what of the political? Are we fighting for a credible...

Not a bad idea, but must be done with caution.

--traditionally, Afghan Islam has been quite tolerant and opposed to Wahhabism, and which was banned for a time in the 19th century. Majority of...

Cultural Intel and COIN in Afghanistan is an interest of mine, and comments on this article and the Afghan COIN Academy would be appreciated, esp. from old Afghan hands.
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Given his inability to accept any responsibility, I'm glad he's out of the Army and MNF-I, and Petraeus et al. are in charge. Let him win accolades among the anti-war crowd for his Bush-bashing. The...

This article http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article2910440.ece indicates hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees are voting with their feet and coming home.

My concern re a "Tet"...

Read an interesting blurb, http://ace.mu.nu/archives/247147.php basically suggesting a Tet is on the way, just a matter of time. Further, with too many premature calls by U.S. commentators (blogs,...

Thank all for the comments.



This stuff is amazing. Thank you for posting the links, esp. to Silverman's work at U/Penn. I had no idea how close simulation was to the real deal. I'm still...

Interesting. The problems I see with simulation as described above is that we cannot replicate the social-cultural and religious norms and rituals learned natively, beginning in the crib; nor the...

Abu Buckwheat -- Careless writing on my part by adding Abu Ghraib. I was focusing on the issue of waterboarding, hence the following sentence "Arabs think of us a far too genteel and naive in many...

Yes, we will not agree on the waterboarding issue.

The Gaza crowd is hardly illustrative of Arab thought. They hate us, and along with their West Bank cohorts, had a fine celebration on 9/11 as I...

I'm not wedded to the number, nor do I take it as absolute. However, if we consider that the number represents about 00.50% of all Muslims spanning the globe, it is not that huge. 50 basis point...

Personal value judgment. Let the U.S. Congress (a) define waterboarding (b) determine if it is illegal under international and/or U.S. law and (c) act accordingly.

Actually, I live in the Mid...

Actually reading the book would be helpful. It goes to the point that "AQ et al have not had trouble recruiting before or after 9/11, nor in finding grievances, real or imagined, for their...

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If "waterboarding" is that clear a violation of IHL as claimed, then Congress should have legislated it away, no? Have they decided to then ignore our obligations under IHL? Have we even...

A well said piece by West: http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2007/11/waterboarding-a-political-mane/

ABC news, FWIW, claims only 3 people have been "waterboarded":...

All professors at the universities I have attended bearing "Assistant" or "Associate" rank are not tenured.

I find it quite amusing that a mediocre professor at a mediocre university writing mediocre academic work and languishing there as a non-tenured professor for 13 years...

Times (London) headline above, article here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2733769.ece

The Brits, Canadians, US and Dutch have been pulling their weight, but not the...

Daily Telegraph (UK) writes "As Robert Gates, the American Defence Secretary, remarked recently, the [NATO] alliance has more than two million soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen at its disposal,...

Thank you for posting. The data are useful.

I'm not sure what the CSIS purports to show besides providing quantifiable data on what we already know. If Cordesman is suggesting that Pashtunistan is...

I was checking out the biographies of "Concerned Anthropologists" and the collective bloggers who run Savage Minds. A few things jump out at me:

(1) Many research esoteric issues like...

Dear Sir,

I'm currently writing on the Taliban, tentatively titled, "Cultural Intelligence: The Taliban, Pashtuns and Counter-Insurgency". Your answer, if possible, would aid my work. You wrote:
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