Quote Originally Posted by Michael C View Post
I read this comment echoed several times on this thread and others. Afghanistan is counter-insurgency fighting. An insurgency attempts to overthrow the government; a counter-insurgency attempts to defeat those attempts. By defining insurgency and counter-insurgency like this, we can see that politics is the key driving force on either side (whether your politics are religiously motivated or not, they are still politics).
I agree with all that. I could quibble and point out that most armed disagreements have politics as the key force on either side but that's minor.
I have to define Afghanistan as a counter-insurgency because it will require political solutions.
Does this mean that war is not amenable to political solutions?
When commenters say it is not COIN it is war, what they mean is it is not Iraq.
Incorrect statement. It may be true for some people but you did not qualify it by adding 'some.' It is absolutely not true for me. I suspect most others here who have said the same thing would also say it is not true for them.

I said it is not a COIN operation for the simple reasons that: (1) the US is not the government with an Insurgent problem; It may be a COIN effort for the Government of Afghanistan, it is not for the US. That, as they say, is doctrine. We are engaged in FID LINK and SFA LINK (both links .pdf) (2) there are other armed and hostile players aside from the insurgents that are admittedly present thus while there may be insurgents, there are other -- and larger -- problems. If that were not true, we would likely not be there in the first place... (3) Facets of conventional and irregular warfare aside from COIN like efforts are imperative or the coalition casualty rate will climb rapidly.

None of that is semantic or doctinaire nit picking, those are significant points and that last item is overlooked by entirely too many, some in high places, some actually on the ground, who fail to understand that reality and get people killed unnecessarily.
...it is a rural insurgency fought mainly with guerilla tactics.
So far and in general if not in totality; we'll see if that remains the case. Night vision devices and much improved TTP have already been detected in use by the bad guys...
It is also extremely intense and kinetic, but it is still COIN.
You may call it what you wish. What is important is that we realize the US is not engaged in a COIN effort, it is engaged in a stability operation assisting a foreign government which has an insurgency and a major lawlessness problem and that many efforts that government would apply in a COIN effort cannot be applied by us in Afghanistan as we aren't the government nor can many be applied by the Afghans themselves due to the nature of the society and their economic circumstances. Also, as you say, it is indeed extremely intense and kinetic and thus many things one would do ordinarily in support of a COIN effort cannot be done at this time (I'd suggest that alone makes it a war, YMMV).

I'm reminded of Rifleman's old tag line (and use it hoping he won't mind) quoting a Hessian officer who said, "Call this war by whatever name you may, only call it not an American rebellion; it is nothing more or less than a Scotch Irish Presbyterian rebellion." He was correct but many British Officers disagreed -- they were also correct as later events showed. Names aren't that important. What is important is that those involved (and those here in CONUS) realize it may be a COIN effort for the Afghans with us and others in support and that certain techniques must be employed but that it is in fact a war for all practical news release and funding purposes.

More important is what's being done to bring it to a reasonably acceptable conclusion. You're doing your part, for which I thank you.