Quote Originally Posted by Surferbeetle View Post
Ken,

I go back and forth on this; I have seen some good and some bad but I can say that in general things are more complex than they appear and you do the best that you can do at the time knowing what you know. I suspect I will need a few more years to think about it in order to have a more nuanced understanding.
Things are and one does. Every war is different and we all change as we age and society changes also -- thus I'm not sure anyone will ever get it all sorted out even in their own mind, much less for the variety that is mankind. Nor am I sure that one needs to. For most of us, our instincts work pretty well.
What were the metric's de jour in Korea and are there any that apply to our situation today looking at things from the COIN viewpoint?...
We were exceedingly fortunate in Korea as the war occurred before the DoD invention of 'metrics.' Thank the gods. The only numbers that counted were tonnages of munitions and chow delivered. The WIA and KIA were acknowledged as a cost of doing business and while they were mourned, briefly, there were no Memorial Services and no particular angst. Life went on, such as it was. New replacements came in every month so there was always a lot of training going on when not actually committed. Everyone was present for duty all day every day and there were no breaks though one did get two three day R&Rs in the Rear (if lucky) and one seven day to Japan (most everyone). Nice, peaceful, fun, little war.

The only significant COIN activity was that conducted against remnants of North Korean Divisions left in the south after Inchon. There were thought to be somewhere between 10 and 20 thousand (an overestimate -- or a lot of 'em went civilian and blended in locally). When 1st Mar Div got back south from the Reservoir, they and the 5th RCT were put to work cleaning them out.

That was done in a little over a month with TTP that probably would not be used today. Basically half the Division put out ambushes at night to enforce the dusk to dawn curfew and anything that moved got killed, the other half went on sweeps during the day and corralled most of them and not too gently. Intel was beyond rudimentary. No real lessons there IMO.
What lessons learned can we cull from Hezbollah tactics?
That frontal attacks against defended positions are very costly? Don't attack fortified positions with tanks and too few infantry? Don't rely on air power to win anything against a determined enemy on their own ground? Don't attack an enemy that has attained social dominance in an area unless you can defeat him, he'll only emerge stronger? That the West will lose the info battle in the ME because we are not trusted there and will not be for many years if ever? That just as Saddam sucked us in, Hezbollah sucked the Israelis in? That nothing in the ME is as it seems?

Not being snide or snarky, everyone of those is a very serious point.
What's worth reading on this?
Sorry, I'm unsure what "this" is? Korea? Hezbollah? Morality of war?