Hi Brent,

I think you might be helped by reading Doug Ollivant's excellent piece:

Ollivant, Douglas A. "Countering the New Orthodoxy: Reinterpreting Counterinsurgency in Iraq." In National Security Studies Program Policy Paper. Washington DC: New America Foundation, 2011.

I am using the 'surge' as one of the case studies in my PhD, I think there is a fair bit more complexity to the issue than the narrative suggests. I am certain from my research that it was not quite as binary as you seem to imply. As someone who was working in one of the major organisational 'change agencies' in theatre during 07/08 I am also quite reserved on the issue of how much 'organisational change' accounts for what happened. I believe it can be put down as much to other elements (including 'luck' with issues such as the JAM cease fire and the 'awakening') combined with increased tactical acumen gained from years of painful experience.

I also suspect that you are walking thorugh a semantic minefield wrt you conceptions of 'strategy' 'politics' and 'war' as presented in the accompanying document. Some of the ideas seem a bit 'loose'. I would urge you to clarify some of the concepts you are using very early on in the process, although I have no doubt that your supervisor will be urging something similar..

Good luck with your research,

Best regards,

Mark