Quote Originally Posted by Hacksaw View Post

If those who are paid to help the commander think, through both the current and future fight, if they aren't considering the info content of their operations... words, images and actions.... they aren't doing their job and they don't need an "Info Specialist"... they just need a new job
Yes!!! I am still thinking through Wilf's points, but I am in violent agreement with the above!

IMHO COIN is more complex then conventional operations only because from a military perspective the military is doing more of what other government departments / NGOs / other governments should be doing in conventional warfare.

In COIN we may or may not be dealing more with the Influence side - which should be done by the indigenous government (but if it was doing things right we probably wouldn't be in a COIN scenario in the first case...) Having got sucked into the Influence Activities we have specialised it, instead of subsuming it into generic G3/5/7 activities. The result? A blossoming cadre of specialists and an increasingly esoteric lexicon of terms; the one generating the other!

That is not to say that I do not think that Influence Activities are not practical, effective and necessary, I just think we have lost sight of the woods for trees