Quote Originally Posted by Ken White View Post
You shot yourselves in the foot. Seems to me in the situation you describe the "we" stops at Battalion.

As for your Corporals and what they know, one way to look at it. I'll simply suggest that like the Generals, they'll do what they're trained to do. Note that the Generals who went into Iraq did well, even great, at what they'd trained to do -- clobber the evil enema -- and didn't have a clue what to do with looters or setting up a secure environment...
Yes, I refer to "we" as the battalion collectively, primarily the leadership. I was a lowly 1LT at the time and was opposed to the way the class was established, but had little influence. I was one of the few officers in the class, but I was going on a MTT assignment, so it was appropriate for me to be there. Unfortunately, in many cases, the language class was the last priority, trumped by FRG meetings, ranges and the like. I heard the BN instituted the same language class before their next tour (I had PCS'd) and made several appropriate changes, to include: making leaders attend, holding class during duty hours and making it priority over other training. That is good and I hope it was more successful for them.
I will concur with the majority of your second point; however, I don't think COIN is really that difficult, from a common sense perspective. I'd argue the INF BN I was a part of in Mosul/2003 got it right. Of course, our CG was Petraeus, we executed his tactics; he had COIN right from the get-go.