Quote Originally Posted by Steve Blair View Post
Is that the same thing as Kilkullen's talking about? Hard to say, since I don't know what he was thinking when he wrote it. But it may show a more practical application of what we now call "hearts and minds." He may also be spinning that way in some sort of attempt to curb what he may feel is an over-reliance on firepower. Again, it's hard to say. A more useful way to look at the concept might be "understanding hearts and minds," which I take to mean taking the time to get a good grasp of what will and will not work in a particular situation and then acting on it. Mackenzie did that, as did Carleton and a handful of other skillful officers on the Frontier. But they also had years to develop their solutions. Our rotation practices don't necessarily allow that.
Good comments, Steve, and I should clarify my position. That page just pissed me off. Certainly, if you can find a way to end an insurgency nonviolent, that is wonderful just like my favorite insurgent is Martin Luther King achieving his political aims nonviolently. But, from what I've experienced and studied, those instances are typically outliers.

Let me try this another way. Once a community has gotten to the point where they are willing to send their teenage daughters or eight year old boys to blow themselves up, then you're probably going to be engaged in a tough fight.

The ironic thing is that most Pop-Centric dudes don't disagree with me. As we discuss it, they typically say, "Mike, you are absolutely right, but we can't say it like that. It sounds too harsh." I respond that the way they are saying it confuses others and leads to more people getting killed.

Case in point. A couple of pages later, Dr. K follows up with,

Again, in practice, this population-centric approach often involves as much fighting, if not more, than an enemy-centric approach, because putting in place effective population protection forces the enemy to come to us, so that we fight the guerrillas on our terms, not on theirs. Ironically, an effective population-centric strategy usually results in far greater losses to the enemy-- in terms of insurgents killed, wounded, captured, surrendered, or defected-- than does a superficially more aggressive enemy-centric approach.
He regains his sanity. Unfortunately, most people don't make it to that page.