Quote Originally Posted by Fuchs View Post
COIN is not about the prevention of an insurgency, but about countering it.


FM you-know-which-one

Politicians at home must not think in COIN terms.

......

COIN is too dangerous for domestic freedom and democracy.
It MUST NOT PASS THE RUBICON.
I'm italian and I think that what make Fuchs react so strongly is worth a deep thought.

Anyway I'd like to submit to your attention some kind of different problem with COIN and domestic policy: organized crime.

In Italy we have some regions that are in some kind of extra territorial status. Nothing seems bad: there are elections, there is an administration etc.. But everything is controlled by organized crime. I've came to think of it like a won insurrection. Without too much violence, even if we must remeber the fallen heroes. We reached the IED stage and after that everything calmed down.

Now we have live side by side with a part of Italy that is not really in control. This part of the country CAN'T imagine any kind of development because any economic or social entity MUST come to terms with organized crime.

The provocation: which kind of strategy, if not COIN, must be envisaged?

Bernard Fall, when had to explain why military evalutions of pink area were futile, said: look at taxes. When no more tax income come from a village that village have flipped side. In south Italy we have entire towns with no income taxes....