The Col. Gentile collection and debate

[Bob's World]

Actually the US is more accurately conducting "Post-regime change FID" on two fronts. My term, but it seems pretty accurate. (COIN is something that a Nation's government does to deal with its own internal insurgency.)

To add to our confusion, many think not only that we are doing COIN, but also that the recipe for COIN is one part "Defeat the Insurgent," one part "Defeat the Ideology," and two parts "Create Effective Democratic Governance."

Since we are not the cooks in this kitchen, but merely advising and assisting, we should at least start by making sure we have the right recipe:

One part "understand the populace and what the issues are (real or perceived) that makes them susceptible to ideological inspiration (tailored for taste across the nation),"

one part "help fix that part of the government that is failing to adequately address those particular issues, ensuring that the populace is allowed full self-determination, with the only caveat being that whatever system is adopted must provide that same populace with the absolute certainty that it has legitimate recourse to address any such failures in the future short of violent insurgency"

one part "ensure your own narrative for your involvement not only matches your principles and your actions, but also facilitates avoiding as much as possible the perception that you are now the source of legitimacy of this failed government, but are instead an ally of the populace representing them first, over whomever happens to be in office,"

and one part "help create a secure environment, with emphasis on host nation security capacity enabled as necessary."

Once we get out of the mode we are in and adopt a “smarter” application of power, we will probably find that we no longer need to convert the entire force to the conduct of such operations, or to create an equivalent civilian corps for the same. A small force can enable a large one if it is applying the right recipe and knows what its doing; and there are plenty of civilians looking for work right there at ground zero. No need to import many of ours.

[mikekuhn]

to answer my question here

[Ken White]

Actually the US is more accurately conducting "Post-regime change FID" on two fronts. My term, but it seems pretty accurate. (COIN is something that a Nation's government does to deal with its own internal insurgency.)
. . .
Once we get out of the mode we are in and adopt a “smarter” application of power, we will probably find that we no longer need to convert the entire force to the conduct of such operations, or to create an equivalent civilian corps for the same. A small force can enable a large one if it is applying the right recipe and knows what its doing; and there are plenty of civilians looking for work right there at ground zero. No need to import many of ours.

Smack on the target...

[MikeF]

Actually the US is more accurately conducting "Post-regime change FID" on two fronts. My term, but it seems pretty accurate. (COIN is something that a Nation's government does to deal with its own internal insurgency.)

The only COIN the USG does is internal anti-gang,terrorism, etc...

I've been banging my head against the wall trying to consider why we don't consider this fact. We can assist other governments (SFA, FID, IW); We can force regime change (UW, HIC), but what we are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan is occupation.

I simply don't understand why that is hard to grasp. Occupation is neither good nor bad. It is just a word. What we must determine in our grand strategy is if we want to be an empire or not. That, IMHO is the elephant in the room that no one talks about.

v/r

Mike

[AmericanPride]

What we must determine in our grand strategy is if we want to be an empire or not.

Given the insatiable desires of any large body of people, I think it's more a matter of aligning strategy to the necessity of imperialism, in whatever modern form it might take.

[Bob's World]

I think America has demonstrated quite well that one can develop a tremendous global economy without placing a yoke of colonialism on anyone's shoulders.

At the same time though, those very populaces are quite familar with that yoke, so when we do change our approach and begin conducting "justified" occupations, you have to expect the occupied populaces to look at that event just a teeeny bit differently than we do. Tricky business that.

But as I like to say: "While it may be right to do the wrong thing, it is never wrong to do the right thing."

Time to swallow the ego and start doing the right thing. We fear that we will be accused of cutting and running. There is a big difference between running away from a situation because you are scared, and backing out of a situation that you never belonged in in the first place. Particularly if you are committed to ensuring that you don't just let it collapse into chaos behind you. This isn't just on GWOT issues, actually it is primarily on Cold War issues. Time to balance the books and get back in synch with our national principles. We'll actually gain far more credibilty in that process than we will lose.