The US experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan have shown that building local allied forces and capabilities will be major mission requirements in future wars and US military interventions. Placing greater reliance on local forces provides a mechanism for reducing the demands placed on US forces; it helps the US compensate for the religious, ideological, and cultural differences that the US faces in fighting the war on terrorism; and it can help compensate for the lack of US civilian counterparts to the US military that can take up many of the potential burdens in stability operations and nation building.
How smart are we if it took OIF and AF to show us this... There are many unsung heroes out there that were preaching this to a deaf choir long before 2001 - '02 and '03. Some didn't get it; others chose to ignore it... As many on this board have said - we are relearning lessons learned - or for the most part unlearned.

Not to take anything away from the linked article - this needs to be done - but how many times do we have to be told what successful COIN entails?