Quote Originally Posted by Tom Odom View Post
Again, Steve, I will agree to disagree. Forgetting that people are getting shot (whether they are soldiers or not) is a recipe for disaster. When you use the term "at war" do you hold to the legalistic terms of a declared war?


Bob,

I will disagree with you as well. The folks who put soldiers and civilians were generally those who did not get that war means killing.

Both of you draw neat lines where none exist. I went through a similar exercise in 1994 when we tried debating genocide versus acts of genocide.

Regards.

Tom

To call COIN "War" is illogical once one appreciates what actually causes insurgency. If one firmly believes that insurgency is caused by the insurgent warring against them, and that by defeating that insurgent they win the insurgency, then yes, COIN is war. But as Dr. Metz points out, this typically just suppresses the effects for some period of time, followed by "resurgency."

When we begin to hold governments accountable for their actions we begin to get in front of the current conditions of insurgency that are being exploited by AQ's UW campaign.

When we stop trying to control outcomes in terms of who or how other states are governed as well, we begin to get in front of those same nationalist insurgents buying into the idea that they need to break the support of the US to their government in order to prevail.

So, the insurgencies being riled up by AQ begin to fade when all of those respective governments realize that they need to get their sh$& all in one sock; and the terrorism levied against the US begins to fade once we stop enabling bad behavior in our allied governments. Currently we are enabling bad behavior to the Nth degree in Afghanistan. We enable it in many other countries in much more subtle ways every day as well.

Some choose to blame Islam, or ideology in general, or evil people who don't like us or any number of bogeymen. I prefer to hold governments to task. But that is just me. I don't think the U.S. should be a victim or a bully either one, but that is current strategy "We are a victim, so we have the right to be a bully." We're better than that. We're smarter than that.