I was not expecting this crowd to glean anything new out of the Economist piece. However, we're not the target audience, and I'm interested in it mainly for its effects in educating the Western mainstream about small wars and the consequences it has for the organization of our militaries. This piece and the accompanying article on restructuring Western militaries for small wars made the cover of this week's edition. In particular, the irregular warfare piece can be better understood as a piece of supporting background information for the cover article on military transformation.
http://www.economist.com/opinion/dis...ry_ID=10024437

I believe the statement about ak-47's, RPG's, and suicide bombers is meant to be hyperbolic - they are universally understood symbols of the guerilla.