Quote Originally Posted by William F. Owen View Post
Sorry but ,in my opinion, that is just not true, and grossly misrepresents Gian Gentile's position.

His is not the traditional Army view by a very long shot.
Gian Gentile understand so called COIN a great deal better than the "WOW COIN" generation. He just does not buy into the "Lady Di Way of War" that keeps getting churned out. Same with Justin Kelly, and same with me.

COIN is warfare, not social work, or nation building. The problem people have with Gian is he keeps calling them out on their poorly formed opinions and sloppy arguments.
I haven't been impressed with many of the arguments on either side, to be totally honest. Both make use of sloppy history and want to compartmentalize things that really can't be shoved into neat boxes. And actually, Gian's public arguments are quite close to the traditional Army view...just dressed up in terms of language.