Gian, my brother, I know its difficult to generate much discussion without throwing a little fuel on the fire, but you extrapolate the "dictum" a little too far...
I continuously read statements like: "In any Coin operation the people are always the center of gravity." Why, I ask, does it always have to be that way? Why couldn’t our Coin manual have embraced multiple theoretical constructs that don’t just limit us to one? The reason why this is critical is because by operationalizing the principle, or law, that in any
Coin fight the people are the center of gravity the following derivative principle then applies; the people must be protected.
It is more accurate to say that the people must be separated from the influence of the insurgent. That can take many forms and are not limited (quite the opposite in fact) by placing the people as a COIN COG. COIN operations at their core are (should be) designed to defeat an insurgent's efforts to sway the people's opinion that their vision is the preferred option to reforming the current sitting government. It is the people's trust and confidence, and maybe that is what is missing in the current version, that must be earned, swayed, etc
I acknowledge your concern that a default setting may develop that trust & confidence equals secure the people (probably justified), but I think you sell CDRs and their slaves (planners) a tad short
.
I do think we can (and have in the case of Iraq) do much worse than establishing a relatively secure environment while simultaneously building HN capability & capacity to provide individuals with an acceptable degree of security and freedom from the capricious (sic) application of violence. Without doing so there is no chance to earn trust & confidence.
Now Mr Crane's comment about the conference and people always being the center regardless of the spectrum. That is probably either language translation barriers or a lack of precision. We live in an era in which we have to keep in mind the IO content of all operations, but that is a far cry from People as the COG of all operations. If neither of the above applies, then that is just drivelling, I don't think he was espousing that as his position, but if it was then the previous statement applies.
Live Well and Row
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