Class Analysis and COIN

[William F. Owen]

III. The Political Decision in the Military Act
While Clausewitz defined war as an extension of policy, he further argues that the political object sought by war is suspended and replaced by the immediate desire for military victory. Military acts therefore do not have a political nature to them except for the strategy as a whole. However, in insurgency every military act is a political decision. This is because the classes within a society, rather than the state itself, are using war as an extension of their own interests.

That's not what I take from CvC. The destruction of the enemies forces has political effect on the other elements of the trinity - Leadership and people. All useful military acts have political effect at some level and for some duration. In fact I would submit that is how you judge the usefulness of military action, and I think CvC makes this point.

An insurgency exactly mirrors CvC's trinity. If it doesn't it's not an insurgency. Destroying the military capability of an insurgency, is one way to defeat the insurgency. - and this alwasy makes me wonder why all the great and good are trying to examine insurgencies as some kind of exclusive case, instead of starting from the premise that COIN is warfare, and not "social work with guns," or some other post-modern take on a very ancient problem.