WOW! While aware of most of what was written, that was the single most useful document I have read in a very long while on COIN. It is well written, utterly coherent, explanation of how and why. Simple, shop floor, useable stuff. My main take aways from this are;
A.) IO is actually transmitting and supporting intent, that is demonstrated by action. I can think of many better terms for this than IO
B.) Suppression/attrition and terrain denial are very much COIN tools. Eg: it is about people and places.
C.) Major Smith is a soldier trained in conventional combined arms warfare, who has considerable expertise in the practice of COIN. Assuming he is a normal guy (though gifted writer) it seems it is not to hard to create an officer who can do both.
I see this article featuring in my footnotes for some time to come!
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