Quote Originally Posted by jcustis View Post
What are your views on the argument that the man selected to lead develop COIN doctrine and lead the Iraq effort should have been from a SF background?
I would disagree. I absolutely love the SF community and have worked extensively with them over the year but, in my opinion, most of them retain kind of an A team perspective. That is perfect in an El Salvador type sitaution where the U.S. footprint is very small and is primarily focused on small unit advice and support, but less so in an Iraq type situation where we bascially have to rebuild security forces from the ground up at the same time that we ourselves undertake large scale stability operations.

Phrased differently, SF is the most exquisite tool on earth for certain situations, but they are not the right tool for everything irregular.