Ken--
You are quite right when you argue that Iraq is not (fill in the blank)...
. . .
The new is often found in the recombination and adaptation rather than in some "new generation of warfare." If this line of reaoning is correct, then reading Galula, Trinquier, Thompson, Kitson, Callwell, and the USMC 1940, etc. is valuable as sources of COIN adaptation.
The other issue you raise is that of organizational learning...
. . .
Given all the prior experience and the existence of relevant doctrine, I fail to see how senior commanders like Franks and senior DOD officials like Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Feith could have ignored it all. But, then, I guess I remain too optimistic about the human race. Still, I strongly believe that we should be able to find ways to instituionalize organizational learning that will make it more difficult for human stupidity to screw things up.
JohnT
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