Dear Bob, (If I may call you bob)
You are very much right. There are no Taliban University. Just as there are no Insurgent University or Rebel University or War Spoilers University. One thing you do point out is that those poeple have support from population. Therefore there is a great cohesion among them.
"Us" (I mean the West in general) are not supported by anyone. How many times did some of us have to re-explain to the just newly arrived guy that: yes he/she is right but he/she does not get the context, the micro level problematic... And then spoils everything because you just can't count on him, not as a person, but as a support a reinforcement of what you are doing and what has been done. Basically "Our" action does not have any kind of cohesion as you reinvent and re explain hot water everyday internally.
Basically, my observation in the field is that so many times we do share a cause (what ever that cause is) but we do not have cohesion. (I do not want even to enter in the debate of is that cause is right or wrong)
My theoritical question (and I believe this is the right place to ask it as it is the theory and futurist threat place), is does that impact us? Is cause enough to bring cohesion?
All of us are great professionals and profesionnal armies do have great cohesion inside, no doubt on that.
But there is a poor cohesion in between each countries, between civilians and military, between corps...
On the other hand, as you pointed out, there is a great cohesion on the opponent side not just because they share a cause but because they share more: history, land, culture... They belong there. They are a group with "natural" cohesion.
And by extension, the question is: does professionalisation of the armies not increase the distance between the people and the fighters (in a large sense) and finaly ends up being counter productive ?
My first impression is that there is more cohesion in the opponant side as they know they do have support from population while there is less cohesion among coalitions (and I am not speaking only about A-stan or Iraq, the problematic is the same in DRC, Sudan or Lebanon) as there is less support from population to the cause. Hezbollah fighters do have the support of their population. While UN troops in DRC do not have the support of their populations and therefore, even if they share a cause, there is less cohesion among the UN troops than the peace spoilers.
PS: no private or low ranked officers have been harmed in the writting of this post neither have been PhD or flag officers.
But I will remember Bob's wish if ever I get to a flag officer or PhD level...
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