Stateside COIN Academy

[MikeF]

Side Note- my physical therapist decided to induce dizzyness today so she could isolate specific areas of damage. Left inner ear. Check. Now, I gotta wait a day for my brain to unwind.

Another Way- Part Three

After my last deployment, I stepped away from direct involvement in war for the first time in seven years. Just like every warrior going back to the Hellenic wars, I came back trying to re-integrate into the "normal" world. Nate Ficks does a good job in his book describing the differences, the numbess, and the struggle for purpose. I've written about it SWJ, and it was a period of transition, healing, maturation, and understanding. Thankfully, I've walked away from it a better person.

During that time, as I wrestled with the violence I unleashed, my neighbor's hatred towards each other, the seemingly futility of war, and the deep sense of grief that I felt from the loss of my boys, I grabbed a board and went surfing. In that time of solitude, I'd just sit on the board and watch the waves grow, peak, and crash in perpetual flow. Other days, I'd just hike deep into Big Sur, sit on the mountain top, and listen and observe. I began to understand the laws of nature and science, and I started having ideas on how they apply to human nature. I guess I found my Zen moment. I walked down from that mountain understanding several things: 1. Who I am. I was finally able to look myself in the mirror and know that I did the best that I could in every situation, 2. I see the world differently than others and that's okay. 3. I developed a gift on the ability to articulate and describe the realities of war by moving words around on paper.

Simultaneously, I was thrust into the world of small wars through the world view of Special Forces, State Dept, NGOs, missionaries, and academics. I was the hammer in the toolbox; they are the rulers, screwdrivers, pliars, saws, and drills. As I worked on different projects, I started trying to consider how we could build a house if we have to. At the same time, I started understanding that we've been trying to build houses with the wrong tools, no freaking blueprint, and we forgot to order the building supplies. Additionally, we thought we could build these houses overnight and put it on a credit card b/c we live in a nice house. We forgot how long it took our parents struggled to save up for the house, the sacrifices they made to build the house, and the time, effort, and care they took into maintaining that house. We just wanted everyone to have a big house today.

So, I've got some ideas on how to build a house. I'll describe them in a minute. As an officer, I'm a project manager. I don't know have the technical expertise of the plumber, the electrician, the architect, or the carpenter, but I do know where to find them- the NCO corps. I want to brief these experts on these new ideas that I've been introduced to, and I want to give them the opportunity to think it through and determine what will work and what won't work....

In other words, come to a better understanding on our limits of control and constraints on our ability to influence others.

Okay, enough with the analogies and metaphors. That's the background. Here's what I've seen.

[MikeF]

Unconventional War- 10th Group and the Kurds

In 2005, I was assigned to CJSOTF-AP. The staff guys (Majors and CSMs) went into Northern Iraq during OIF One while I was with the Rock of the Marne bringing shock and awe from Kuwait to Baghdad. I'd tell the stories of the Thunder Runs, and they memorized me with tales of 10-man SF teams teaming up with a Kurdish Brigade of 5000 men and taking on the Hammarabi Division. While a shaping effort, they managed to cause enough harrassment to confuse Saddam into believing 4th ID was coming in from the North. Their maneuvers made my job easier.

Next, they started giving me the SF manuals to read and schooling me on something called Foreign Internal Defense. "Mike, dude, we don't do anything ourselves. We teach others how to do it." Or, as I joke with my SEAL friends, "we just sleep, eat, and lift." Traditionally indoctrinated as a tanker, that mindset sounded good to me .



Foreign Internal Defense- Phillipines, Colombia, and El Salvador

In Monterey, I started meeting some new friends and instructors. Many of these men do not have combat patches or CIBs. In Class A's, they have no medals of valor. It's a strange sight because they still have many skill identifying badges, numerous scrolls on their sleeves, and wear a Green Beret. They walk into a room with a quiet, humbled self-confidence. When they choose to speak, even though it may be soft-spoken, you listen. I come from a world of cavalry officers and the Airborne Mafia. We lead large groups of young men. We are supposed to be loud, bold, and out-spoken if not overwhelming and overbearing at times. Quite a culture shock.

Anyways, they started showing me another way- the way of the quiet professional that mentors, advises, and assists. Because of the political sensitivity in the areas that they operate, most of what they do is done out of the limelight with little to no visibility. In systems terms, they attempt to have the least amount of physical presence and shock and the highest output of return on effort. Oftentimes, they are constrained on what they are allowed to do.

We shared long discussions on how to intervene in small wars outside of the US. We debated over what works and what doesn't, timing of intervention, and the escalation of violence.

Salinas- Narco-Terrorism, Gangs, and Effective Law Enforcement

There's a long thread on this in SWC and a corresponding article in the WaPo. I learned that gangs and insurgencies have similar characteristics albeit different goals. I also had to adjust my thought process on how to "fix" the problem. If I applied my Iraq solution to Salinas, we would wall off the neighborhoods, enforce curfews, and ration food controls to force population-control, drop JDAMs on the gangs safe-havens, and send the drug lords back to Mexico.

Some might consider that too harsh. So, we had to relook the problem, and we were striving for innovative, holistic solutions.

1. This is not a police problem, but you need to fix your police. Live with the people, gain the trusts, and stop shooting innocent people.
2. This is a community problem. The people of Monterey County refused to increase sales tax by one cent to pay for more police so until they determine the problem is severe, nothing will change.
3. How is the village working the issue? Are the schools adequate, is their after-school activities, are the churches involved?

Lots of learning points...More to Follow....

[MikeF]

Greg Mortenson- Teaching the Girls to Read

3 Cups of Tea unnerved me. I had spent so much time trying to burn the village down in order to save it, and here's a guy, a white, middle-aged, hippie rock climber from Berkley, that builds schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. There is nothing impressive about him until you understand the impact that he's had on others. Seriously, I almost resigned my commission to join him. I was going to take the Hippocratic Oath of "do no harm" and spend the rest of my days as an ex-patriot doing humanitarian work.

Instead, I want to learn to work with him. COL Chris Kolenda figured that one out as told in Stones into Schools. Greg's work will be for naught if his toolbox doesn't have a hammer. These days, I give back through working with Habitat for Humanity and helping build the villages of my own home.

Nancy Roberts- Wicked Problems

Dr. Roberts is the smartest person that I've ever met. A pioneer of women's rights, Nancy worked her way through Stanford and became a teacher. In 1997, as the Taliban was almost done winning the civil war in A'stan, the United Nations ask her to lead the initial planning/collaboration effort for the UN nation-building mission that was to follow. She left NPS and spent four days in Kabul trying to bring together 100 different NGOs with competing interests and goals to find unity of effort. After her deployment, the UN decided not to support the Taliban. This experience led her to study wicked problems- finding solutions to unsolvable problems.

She became my thesis advisor, mentor, and second mom.

Frank Giordano- The theory of games and human nature

Dr. G, a two-tour Vietnam vet, went on to teach mathematics at USMA. After retirement, he headed to NPS to teach in DA. He reintroduced me to John Nash and how mathematics are God's language. We continue to work together trying to use math to explain why people do the things they do. Or, simply put, sometimes one plus one equals three because people are crazy .

Mohammed Yunnis- Banker to the poor

Yunnis developed the concept of micro-lending to the poor. Instead of just giving money away and creating future welfare states, Yunnis provides low-interest loans to improverished small businessmen. The results are startling. His efforts have already been rewarded with a Nobel Peace Prize, and other groups are using social networking to take it global.

So, that's a snapshot. As you can see, I've been extremely blessed with the people that I've gotten to meet or read about. That's all I'm gonna write today, but at least I'm writing again. Y'all can dissect it and discuss it. What I want to do is frame these ideas into a format for discussion to allow junior leaders to figure out how we can use these ideas to better accomplish our mission.

Thoughts?

Mike

[MM_Smith]

Don’t you just love the medical community when they screw you up just to see how you react? Run two marathons & call me in the morning.

Rumor has it that the ill fated Coalition Provisional Authority of Iraq fame was offered the services of Dr. Yunnis because of his expertise in microfinance. The source of my information was less than complimentary about the CPA in general so I won’t repeat or give credence to his explanation of why his services were not requested/accepted. Besides the anatomical improbability required I don’t think that science is currently capable of the DNA manipulation he implied.

A profound “YES” to Drs. Roberts and Giordano; you are fortunate to know and have access to them. Wicked problems indeed.

Unfortunately for me I’m not familiar with Mr. Mortenson. He sounds like the “Ugly American” who was, in fact, the good guy in the book.

You will find folks like him in the oddest places. I’ve been interested in water and sanitation (Wat/San), primarily potable water, and my sources for things like slow sand filters and hydraulic rams have been almost unbelievable.

NGO story: A few years ago I spoke with a very nice NGO lady from an almost unspeakable hole. When she found out I was in the Army she asked me if I knew anything about Special Forces. Mentally I braced for impact, but all she had was praise for how a couple of NCOs helped her and her organization by teaching an abbreviated class in decision making, course of action analysis and preparing an “OPORD.”

Okay; I found “The Guerrilla and How to Fight Him” in .pdf. It turns out the Marines reprinted it as FMFRP 12-25 in January of 1990; it is 4,784KB. If there is an e-mail address for the SWJ “library” and y’all want it, I’ll send it.

The other reference book is actually three volumes: “Isolating the Guerrilla” Vol. 1, 2 & 3. It was done by the “Historical Evaluation and Research Organization” for a 1965 Army Research Organization contract and was published on 1 FEB 1966. #1 is 6,870KB; #2 is 32,790KB and #3 is 22,450KB so there may be transmission problems but the same offer stands.

[MikeF]

Don’t you just love the medical community when they screw you up just to see how you react? Run two marathons & call me in the morning.

Actually, we've come a long way. I've been absolutely impressed with the calibre of doctors, physicians assistants, and nurses that I'm currently working with at Fort Bragg. The research and studies that they're doing on concussions and TBIs is ground-breaking. In short, before, the doctors told me that I just had to learn to deal with some things (dizzyness, headaches, fatigue, etc...) Now, these doctors are very clear- "We're going to fix you."

Rumor has it that the ill fated Coalition Provisional Authority of Iraq fame was offered the services of Dr. Yunnis because of his expertise in microfinance.

Greg Mortensen experienced the same thing initially in A'stan. Now, we're embracing them. One thing I'm currently studying is why were we so adverse to embrace the technical experts in the field? Naomi Klein argues in "The Shock Doctrine" that it was the undue influence of Milton Freidman and the Chicago Boys brand of free-market, deregulated capitalism.

A profound “YES” to Drs. Roberts and Giordano; you are fortunate to know and have access to them. Wicked problems indeed.

In my final assessment, there is no such thing as a wicked or unsolvable problem. All there exists is limitations in our own thoughts and creativity. For example, we used to think the world was flat.

Thanks for the anecdotes and links. The next thing that I have to do is figure out how to take all this story-telling and put it into a proper outline for instruction.

[John T. Fishel]

example of the single cause, oversimplification induced by ideological blinders! Now I'll tell you what I really think...

She was at OU for our international symposium either last year or the year before - I forget which. Very underwhelming even though her sister is on our Anthro faculty and seems to have a good head on her shoulders.

Cheers

JohnT

[MikeF]

example of the single cause, oversimplification induced by ideological blinders! Now I'll tell you what I really think...

She was at OU for our international symposium either last year or the year before - I forget which. Very underwhelming even though her sister is on our Anthro faculty and seems to have a good head on her shoulders.

Cheers

JohnT

Thanks for that John. I watched her documentary. I didn't read the book. That's seems to be one of the most difficult things to determine in tough discussions- who to listen to? In many areas, moderation has gone astray.