Reed,
I can't quibble with the picture you paint, but I feel there is corner missing from the canvas.

I don't see the Nagl versus Gentile argument as being constructive or even accurate, but...

However, there are a number of positions and ideas promoted and advocated by the Post modern COIN Avant garde, that have to be challenged.

Some are merely eccentric opinions, but others are just plain stupid. It is extremely doubtful that anything written on COIN, since 2003, is original or even useful, other than to re-state insights that already existed. You can make the US army a much better army, without ever mentioning the words HIC or COIN, and that is the approach that I favour, should anyone ask.