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Some Graham Greene is proably in order too, e.g., "The Quiet American, "Our Man in Havana." It's pretty cynical stuff, but he seems to have his finger on the pulse of the the post-colonial, emerging...

I see your point, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of languages and cultures to choose from, and it's hard two determine where conflicts will emerge in six years. Very true. I think it's less...

Great recommendation. It is notably missing from the SWJ reading list. Lord Jim too.

It is clever. "Quest for Fire" meets "Who Moved My Cheese."

I will try to keep an open mind.

I found the article I referenced in my opening post. He makes his case much better than I.
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You make a good point. I was a bit sloppy in my description that our Soldiers should respect other cultures. That's not what I meant. They should endeavor to display respect for other cultures...

I don't think someone referring to COIN techniques would dispute that 99% or maybe 100% of the techniques would be used in other conflicts, e.g., large conventional ops, etc. I'm puzzled that people...

When I advocate respecting other cultures I'm not suggesting Soldiers embrace them, like them, or in any way adopt a relativistic approach toward culture. You can find aspects of a culture abhorrent...

Some awesome comments. We absolutely need to be committed to Full Spectrum Operations.

However, the characterization of the French failure in Algeria having anything to do with Galula's strategy...

I'm not suggesting Toffler replaces Clausewitz, but they aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. Sorry, but the idea that the military establishment scoffs at Toffler only confirms my sense he's...

It is armed social work, and that's the paradigm shift. Read Toffler. Warfare is different in the information age. To bemoan, that killing/capturing "is what militaries do" denies the changing nature...

COIN is a more subtle kind of warfare, that is primarily political in nature. Galula stresses a xerox machine is more powerful in COIN than a machine gun...a pediatrician more valuable than a mortar...

Hacksaw brings up some great points; it's by no means a straw man argument.

But I do think the key line from the Soldiers Creed is:

"I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of...

I do worry the word conjures up images of raping & pillaging, or at least killing over pacifying, i.e., not the best word to convey what we want from Soldiers. I prefer a Soldiers Ethos.

I'm surprised that there hasn't been more chatter in the media that the alternatives to Gitmo, with the exception of of just releasing them, will be exponentially crueler. At Gitmo the detainees have...

I read an article a few years back by a British General who raised concern that the U.S. Army's Warrior Ethos may be counterproductive in the COIN environment - that it reinforces the 'kill-capture'...

Thanks for the tip. I'll definitely check out "The Underdogs."

I mentioned it recently in another post, but I'll raise it again. I'm worried about our (U.S. Military) lack of appreciation for literature/fiction/poetry as valuable tool to enhance cultural...

(From Amazon) The Yacoubian Building holds all that Egypt was and has become over the 75 years since its namesake was built on one of downtown Cairo’s main boulevards. From the pious son of the...

The Yacoubian Building (Arabic: عمارة يعقوبيان ʿImārat Yaʿqūbīān) by Egyptian author Alaa el-Aswany is more insightful on the appeal of the Islamic extremism than anything on the list.

Great essay on how we need to improve some of the terminology we use with the Muslim world.

IO Sphere, Fall 06: Choosing Words Carefully: Language to Help Fight Islamic Terrorism

Military thinkers are generally very good historians, but they tend to marginalize literature as "just fiction." I think it's also important to study a culture's literature to increase cultural...

We do need to better understand the Muslim world to win the IO battle. It's less about understanding the enemy than understanding the complex culture that produces the enemy.

We don't need to...