Quote Originally Posted by John Grenier View Post
But I think its too easy to discount his expertise and the nuances of what he has to say as "niche expertise" ... the skepticism is often a fig leaf for anti-intellectual bias. I mean really, it's not like the "doers" have done the square root of dick to solve the problems. Perhaps we should listen to some of those pointy headed intellectuals who have spent their entire adult lives thinking about these issues.
Actually on reflection spurred by Dayuhan, I would opine that actually there is a real problem in both the UK and US with pseudo-academia or real academic issues never held to rigour.
The whole COIN debate has been characterised by poor history, sloppy thinking, and agenda pumping. None of those things speak well of a desire to be academic, if the folks concerned are not forced to be disciplined.

Just because someone got a PhD, it does not mean they can take their training wheels off.