Lost Lessons & Fresh Thinking: a challenge for SWC

[davidbfpo]

Perhaps the USA and its main allies can encourage regional coalitions, with a joint command with US / allied contributions before combat. I appreciate AFRICOM has spent considerable time supporting such regional training and exercise packages.

I have stressed before combat simply as regional only combat / peacekeeping operations should be preferable to a direct US / allied action, shades of Mali and Somalia.

A number of nations, not only in Africa, have a clear political position on limiting partnership with the USA and some allies. Those nations also face a potential, if not actual threat from AQ plus, but appear to be reluctant to use their "treasure" and risk their blood.

All this ignores the missing dimension - countering the jihadist message.

[davidbfpo]

An ex-CIA analyst of some note, but unknown to me, Nada Bakos commented on the current situation:

I have never thought of AQ as down and out or part of a resurgence, it's a metamorphosis. An ideology has tentacles, that's why it's hard to predict how or if it will grow. Each of these regional groups all share the same ideological platform that central al Qaida has propagated since the 1990s. It’s time to re-evaluate the United States’ definition of victory against the War on Terror. Is defeating al Qaeda’s central leadership considered a victory when the ideology fosters a following of lone individuals and loose networks? Given my experience following Zarqawi, it’s my opinion that we need to step back from the reality we came to terms with right after 9/11 and evolve with the extremism we hope to combat.

Link:http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1rlp8i9

Her bio:https://espionneanalyst.wordpress.com/about/

Stephen Tankel, who I do know, chimes in with an article full of choice quotes; here is one:

...the fundamental question of how we adapt our counter-terrorism architecture to nest within, rather than drive, our security policy.

Link:http://warontherocks.com/2013/08/not...qaeda-article/

[selil]

An ex-CIA analyst of some note, but unknown to me, Nada Bakos commented on the current situation:

Link:http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1rlp8i9

Her bio:https://espionneanalyst.wordpress.com/about/

Stephen Tankel, who I do know, chimes in with an article full of choice quotes; here is one:

Link:http://warontherocks.com/2013/08/not...qaeda-article/

Nada Bakos is a tiger. She knows her stuff.

[Bill Moore]

Perhaps the USA and its main allies can encourage regional coalitions, with a joint command with US / allied contributions before combat. I appreciate AFRICOM has spent considerable time supporting such regional training and exercise packages.

I have stressed before combat simply as regional only combat / peacekeeping operations should be preferable to a direct US / allied action, shades of Mali and Somalia.

A number of nations, not only in Africa, have a clear political position on limiting partnership with the USA and some allies. Those nations also face a potential, if not actual threat from AQ plus, but appear to be reluctant to use their "treasure" and risk their blood.

All this ignores the missing dimension - countering the jihadist message.

This is already part of the U.S. strategy, but operationalizing it requires buy in and commitment from regional partners. It works when it works, but in many cases this approach isn't currently doable due to internal or regional politics.

[davidbfpo]

There are already a number of thread titles which include the word 'lost' and today whilst merging I came across one which may warrant reading today. It is from May 2008: 'Lost Lessons of Counterinsurgency' by CavGuy (aka Niel Smith, who incidentally dips in occasionally these days), which had 7k views and 49 posts, including some by Gian Gentile:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ead.php?t=6247