Quote Originally Posted by Bob's World View Post
The weakest part of Galula is his perspective on the role of his own nation in the insurgencies he dealt with through his life. He could see the people and the domestic government with great clarity and insight, but was blind to causal role of France. He brought that blindness with him to the US and shared it with us, so that we too could be blind to the causal role of the US in the insurgencies we intervened within.


COIN should be limited to domestic operations only. Anytime one thinks they are doing "COIN" abroad they are likely acting in ways that will make the underlying problem worse for their efforts. This is true regardless of how inept the host governance is, or how non-existent it is. If you don't plan to stay and force the place and the people who live their to submit to your governance, then you are not the COIN force. Making that one small fix in US COIN doctrine would save us Trillions of dollars, thousands of lives, and tons of influence around the globe.
That is very true. That is why I keep bringing up Karpman's triangle. When two people start fighting and a third person intervenes it can end up being a disaster for the intervening person since the original 2 combatants may unite and fight the third party together.


Galula also made this point it was ALL originally called Revolutionary War, Galula decided to change that slightly by calling it COIN and confusing everyone to a certain extent.

Revolutionary War=Political Action(non violent black proganda,fraud) + Guerrilla Action (violent action by armed civillians). The political was primary,guerrilla was secondary or supporting. Hence the famous 80% poilitical vs 20% military quote on COIN by Galula.