Getting near the end.

Here is one last paragraph I want to through out to for consideration.

Thanks to all that sent me links and commented on my ever evolving thoughts on this matter.

7.2 Should strategy be tailored to address the motivation(s) of the enemy?

This idea presents perhaps the most interesting question generated by this exercise; does your strategy have to match the type of war your enemy is fighting in an insurgency/counterinsurgency fight? For example, our COIN strategy is built on Individual Identity. It sees civil rights and representative government associated with popular sovereignty as integral to pop-centric warfare. Meanwhile, our enemy in Afghanistan, the Taliban, was fighting motivated by their Collective Identity as Muslims. That motivation appeared to allow them to pull patriots from the population. That Collective Identity and the values associated with it was clearly a motivating factor among the insurgents. Once we realized the power of Collective Identity as a motivating factor in the target population should we have adjusted our COIN strategy? A similar question can be asked about legitimacy. If, in the target population, our efforts are seen as illegitimate, can we ever win? These questions can best be examined in relation to the motivational force Collective Identity and Legitimacy have. Unfortunately, I can only ask the question.