John, Tom, and all,

Where have I heard this before? The classic lesson of insurgency is that the insurgent does not have to win, only not lose while the COIN side must actually win the war and the peace. My point in saying that Herman does not add much was that there is little that was new either substantively or in how it was presented. But, then, I guess that is true of most discussions of small wars. In the end, the argument is between those who Dave Kilcullen identified as focusing on killing insurgents and those who focus on winning the larger war for legitimacy. Without making these mutually exclusive positions, most of us come down on the side of winning the legitimacy war - as does Herman.

Cheers

John