New Guidance on Counter-Insurgency

[MikeF]

Saying we're doing COIN leads to that, the troops get frustrated because they can't understand why the host nation has a say in anything, the host nation gets their feelings hurt and won't cooperate and 'allies' who would help said host nation aren't all that happy to be seen helping the US. It's all politics and perceptions so the Joint pub folks better be smart in final their word selections and definitions.

And with this point, I'll be quiet.

Task: Presence Patrol
Purpose: To show the populace that you're there or something.

IMO, the most absurd contradiction/consideration that anyone has ever made. I know that I flow from tactics to operations to strategy, but my reasoining is logical (at least in my own head). You cannot tell a GPF (or any other) sergeant to simply drive around aimlessly.

If that is the aim, then just put the entire Army on temporary duty to explore the world in some notion of the early 20th century Roosevelt's "Great White Fleet."

Every mission must be tied towards the bigger picture.

v/r

Mike