I've noted all the "attitude" criticisms here and will again say that I have no fundamental disagreement. No one is saying (at least I'm not) the USAF should not be criticized - I have many criticisms myself - but my point is that such criticisms should at least have some substance and evidence behind them and be delivered professionally. The generalizations I most often read, many of which are extremely vitriolic, typically lack substance and do nothing to further the debate, much less change anyone's mind.

Additionally, part of the problem with criticisms of the USAF is that it's often not clear, to me at least, what critics actually want the USAF to do with regard to COIN. Like the other services, the AF was not prepared for, nor did it foresee the kind of environment we're in today. A bigger issue, ISTM, is it's not clear what big Army and the DoD want out of the AF in regards to COIN besides more ISR, which has already been identified.

Van has touched on something of real substance and impact when he/she mentions internal conflict within the AF and the generational gap in attitudes which, imo, mirror those in the Army. The AF in decades ahead is probably in for a lot of cultural turbulence .

The message from the top is "Everything begins and ends with F-22". When was the last time you saw an AF graphic that didn't have an F-22 in it?
As for everything "beginning and ending" with the F-22, that's true to a certain extent, but from an AF perspective, it's justified. The US military requires air supremacy in order to operate and achieving that is the Air Force's primary mission and the F-22's primary mission. For the Air Force it is a foundational capability like armor is for the Army or the destroyer for the Navy. So the AF takes that role very seriously which is the biggest reason why it wants the F-22. Everyone is justifiably unhappy about the cost, especially the AF, since costs have impacted the number of aircraft it can buy. Personally, I think the entire DoD procurement process is fundamentally flawed, but that discussion is probably best left to another thread.

"Zipper-suited Sun Gods" actually is heard all the time within the Air Force. Here's another for you. Since rated aviators fill the vast majority of leadership positions, aviator's wings on the uniform are often called "Air Force Universal Management Badges" in the private company of non-aviators.

Umar,

Some of your suggestions sound reasonable, others not so much, but what do any of them have to do with the AF and COIN - or the wars we're in currently? At most they seem like tertiary solutions only designed to save a bit of money.

On another note (caution snarky remark coming): Why do Air Force officers in the space AFSC wear flight suits? What exactly is it they fly in? Do we still have manned ICBMs?
The whole flight-suit is a source of tension within the AF, especially with Space officers and especially since most are issued those suits and don't have to spend their own money (unlike officers who wear BDU's, for example). The original reason, of course, was that those who worked in missile silo's needed the fire protection (particularly in the old days), but the missile force has been reduced to handful of personnel so now it's all about "tradition."

And while such service quirks are interesting to discuss in their own right (and having spent several years in the US Navy before the Air Force, I can say that every service has them), how are they relevant to the Air Force's role in COIN?