"Petraeus / Nagl / Kilcullen approach to counter-insurgency is antiquated/misguided"

[Granite_State]

So says former Air Force counterterrorist coordinator John Robb, http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/...cond_fron.html . Curious what people here think of his theories of open source warfare.

[TROUFION]

My favorite part of this article was the end:

"BTW, if you want to understand where all of this is going longer term, please buy my book, "Brave New War." -Posted by John Robb on Wednesday, 18 April 2007 at 11:44 AM "

Also just a comment. IF the General and his staff are wrong then what is right? Guess I'll have to buy the book to find out.

[SWJED]

"MaYHeM" comments on that blog entry:

I see by your many comments that you don't think the current leadership, nor the current methods can succeed in stamping out the insurgency in Iraq.

What I don't see, is a suggestion of how you might approach this problem successfully.

I'd love to see an article on your approach to counter-insurgency in Iraq.

Thanks

[RTK]

My first post was a little jaded and improper.....


I guess life is pretty easy to figure out at 25,000 feet.

[Jimbo]

Rant Mode On:

This is why 4GW is so dangerous as a framework, it can be all things to all people. Robb, using his interpretation of Lind and Hammes, has come up with taregting options based on assumptions which some others have pointed out are false. He has a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the sunni violence, and the nature of the Shi'ite violence. the only part he got right was they both try to kill one another with targeted violence at times.

[goesh]

- and to think I was betting on General P. Where have I gone wrong?

[Granite_State]

Rant Mode On:

This is why 4GW is so dangerous as a framework, it can be all things to all people. Robb, using his interpretation of Lind and Hammes, has come up with taregting options based on assumptions which some others have pointed out are false. He has a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the sunni violence, and the nature of the Shi'ite violence. the only part he got right was they both try to kill one another with targeted violence at times.

Could you elaborate on this?

[Granite_State]

"MaYHeM" comments on that blog entry:

From what I've read, Robb is much bigger on pointing out problems than offering solutions, but I think this is the basic thrust of his thinking on solutions to terrorism and the decline of the state's ability to protect us:

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/...-security.html

[John T. Fishel]

Mr Robb's article is full of assertions unsupported by any facts. It is also focused very much on the tactical.

One real problem is that it neglects (forgets - if he ever knew) over 110 years of research and lessons learned the hard way on insurgency.

In the end, Troufion says it all

Cheers

John

[TT]

The IHT published the a transcript today. Not sure how long the link will work but here it is (and i hope I managed to make it an active link )
The link is only to page 1 of 15 pages, but the Print variation pops the entire thing up.

In February 2020 this link no longer works and goes to the NYT? So replaced, note it is behind a paywall, but YouTube has other versions: https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/w...n.7807571.html