Tentative Guidelines for building partner armies post conflict

[Dayuhan]

Eh? I've seen worse threaddrift.

As have we all I'm sure, but in an RFI thread you can imagine the one doing the requesting watching it drift away and wondering what happened...

There is a reason they might. Both rail and canal transport are expensive to build, in terms of man hours mostly, but cheap to operate. Roads are also expensive to build, and not cheap to operate. If you're in a place where man hours are cheap...well...what's the downside? (There are a couple, of course. Rail requires a high degree of managerial expertise, discipline, and of societal stability. Hmmm...quick check....hmmm...Zimbabwe: 3 crashes and 105 fatalities in the last seven years. Electrically powered sections turned off in 2008.)

Certainly if these trends were directed by rational, conscious decisions there would be incentives to move away from road-based transport... but how often and how successfully have such economic evolutions been directed by rational, conscious decisions?

[Tom Kratman]

As have we all I'm sure, but in an RFI thread you can imagine the one doing the requesting watching it drift away and wondering what happened...



Certainly if these trends were directed by rational, conscious decisions there would be incentives to move away from road-based transport... but how often and how successfully have such economic evolutions been directed by rational, conscious decisions?

Wait! Wait! It'll come to me.

Does Henry Morgan sacking Portobello and Panama count?

[Colin Robinson]

But busy..
I've been crashing on completing a couple of chapters - including some of the data that you all have been commenting on. I'm not too worried if the thread drifts a bit when I've already gained a great deal of useful data that I'm still working through.

But, since you ask..
Who would be the best guys on the board to ask about general SFA principles, grand strategic, military strategic, operational, and tactical level, from Iraq and Afghanistan? I'm reasonably happy I've got the African side of things on the way to being cleared up, but need input from where the fire's been hottest.

And what of our Special Forces colleagues who have been doing FID since before it was fashionable? Anybody I should talk to?

I've learned a great amount and I've really appreciated all the inputs I've got so far.
Cheers

[William F. Owen]

But, since you ask..
Who would be the best guys on the board to ask about general SFA principles, grand strategic, military strategic, operational, and tactical level, from Iraq and Afghanistan?

Ask and they will come....

[davidbfpo]

But, since you ask..Who would be the best guys on the board to ask about general SFA principles, grand strategic, military strategic, operational, and tactical level, from Iraq and Afghanistan? I'm reasonably happy I've got the African side of things on the way to being cleared up, but need input from where the fire's been hottest.

And what of our Special Forces colleagues who have been doing FID since before it was fashionable? Anybody I should talk to?

I've learned a great amount and I've really appreciated all the inputs I've got so far. Cheers

Colin,

There have been several threads on SFA, notably What is Security Force Assistance & What is JCISFA: http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ead.php?t=4997 and there is Security Force Assistance: Roles and Missions for SOF and Conventional Forces ( 1 2 3): http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ead.php?t=5305

Some of those who have posted may not be regular visitors, so a PM or email maybe required.

[Colin Robinson]

I'll follow those up - appreciated your earlier post on my Afghan question which led me to a thread that I didn't know existed.