Applied Smart Power by a SEAL

[davidbfpo]

Robert Du Bois, who started this thread off has written a book and this thread has details:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=15427

[davidbfpo]

A short tale on video:

former US Ambassador Karl Eikenberry was asked to reflect on the lessons he had drawn from the US intervention.....Finally, he told a story about how village elders in Kandahar remembered USAID and Peace Corps volunteers from the 1950s, and reflected on ‘those brave Marines who had fought so hard’, who ‘sadly would not be remembered’ so fondly.

Link and scroll down to the third podcast:http://iissvoicesblog.wordpress.com/...m-afghanistan/

Alas the story is incomplete, so if anyone knows Roger & Bob were that would be neat!

[Bill Moore]

David, thanks for the link. I think most of us, at least the military old timers, have always accepted this as a truth before we got into the post 9-11 nation building business. We have wore our welcome out, while diplomacy and aid done correctly is not overly intrusive, but since 9/11 I'm not so sure that is true is anymore. It is worth going back to the 50s and really studying our small foot print type engagements. What we call small now almost always includes the words task force, which is often the wrong answer.