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Thread: Suggestions for Small Wars Essay Contest?

  1. #61
    Groundskeeping Dept. SWCAdmin's Avatar
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    Lots of the suggestions here, including this last run on "the tactical level," run to the conceptual. What we can really use is some specific proposed questions, not general areas of interest. We've got enough ideas, need something that can cross the LD.

    Like jcustis said, we think there is a strong element of the tactical level in both of the questions we asked. At least potentially.

  2. #62
    Council Member Cavguy's Avatar
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    Some starters: (some are interrelated)

    1) Effective employment of Combat Outposts - when and where? When to handover? When to abandon?
    2) Carrot and the Stick - how and when to use it?
    3) Counterinsurgency strategies among "unwinnable" populations (i.e. hardcore against)
    4) Full Spectrum Counterinsurgency (term from Kilcullen), how to get there?
    5) Officer/NCO/Enlisted educational preparation for the "full spectrum" battlefield. What should it look like?
    6) Working by/with/through - how can conventional forces empower host nation forces and governance?
    7) Effective use of Human Terrain Analysis to achieve effects
    8) Tactical Unit organization for COIN (dovetail role/mission of squad thread)
    9) Effective intelligence operations at the company level
    Last edited by Cavguy; 07-20-2009 at 03:26 AM.
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  3. #63
    Council Member William F. Owen's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cavguy View Post
    8) Tactical Unit organization for COIN (dovetail role/mission of squad thread)
    Damn! Just sent that article to Infantry Magazine at Ft Benning!
    Infinity Journal "I don't care if this works in practice. I want to see it work in theory!"

    - The job of the British Army out here is to kill or capture Communist Terrorists in Malaya.
    - If we can double the ratio of kills per contact, we will soon put an end to the shooting in Malaya.
    Sir Gerald Templer, foreword to the "Conduct of Anti-Terrorist Operations in Malaya," 1958 Edition

  4. #64
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default My questions

    From a non-military armchair:

    1) What does my formation (specify below battallion) gain from fighting a Small War?
    2) Small Wars: 'Fighting to learn' in pre-deployment training -v- 'Learning to fight' from experience in the field? Discuss.
    3) If intelligence is the 'key' why is it in so many silos?
    4) I'll tell you what I need to fight a (tactical level) Small War - bottom up!
    5) A 'light touch' approach to COIN wins (historical examples), so how did we end up with "acronym soup" and B1 / B52 support? (Sheer prejudice that).

    davidbfpo

  5. #65
    Council Member William F. Owen's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by davidbfpo View Post
    From a non-military armchair:

    1) What does my formation (specify below battallion) gain from fighting a Small War?
    2) Small Wars: 'Fighting to learn' in pre-deployment training -v- 'Learning to fight' from experience in the field? Discuss.
    3) If intelligence is the 'key' why is it in so many silos?
    4) I'll tell you what I need to fight a (tactical level) Small War - bottom up!
    5) A 'light touch' approach to COIN wins (historical examples), so how did we end up with "acronym soup" and B1 / B52 support? (Sheer prejudice that).
    For a non-military armchair, that's a pretty good understanding of the issues. Must be some chair you've got there!
    Infinity Journal "I don't care if this works in practice. I want to see it work in theory!"

    - The job of the British Army out here is to kill or capture Communist Terrorists in Malaya.
    - If we can double the ratio of kills per contact, we will soon put an end to the shooting in Malaya.
    Sir Gerald Templer, foreword to the "Conduct of Anti-Terrorist Operations in Malaya," 1958 Edition

  6. #66
    Council Member Umar Al-Mokhtār's Avatar
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    Default Some others...

    The Role of Non-State Actors in Small Wars/COIN.

    Preventing Big Wars from transitioning to Small Wars/Insurgencies.

    The State Department Role in Small Wars/COIN.

    Failed and Fragile States and Small Wars/Insurgencies.

    Small Wars/Insurgencies and WMD.

    Impact of Small Wars/Insurgencies on Neighboring Nations.
    "What is best in life?" "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women."

  7. #67
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cavguy View Post
    9) Effective intelligence operations at the company level
    I'd be happy to read some examples of both what was effective and what was ineffective, along with an overview of how most companies are attempting to do this. This is one area that I have been curious about for a while but it really seemed to come to life after I left the company level. Now, being out of the Army and having no AKO access, I just rely on open source, which is pretty thin on small-unit, practical information.

  8. #68
    Council Member slapout9's Avatar
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    I was in the Doctors office when I thought these up so they may be a little off

    1-How to win friends and kill your enemies.
    2-Population identification and census as primary intelligence,
    3-Geography as intelligence.
    4-What squad leaders need to know about COIN.
    5-Language as critical infrastructure.
    6-Law as critical infrastructure.
    7-Why people get pissed off when you invade their country and what you can do about it.
    8-How to talk to criminals,insurgents and other people who don't like you.
    9-How America can make money doing COIN.
    10-Killing the civilian support structure should you do it?
    11-The right way to do ASCOPE.
    12-Things the Air Force knows about COIN but never told you.
    13-Everything you wanted to know about Warden's 5 rings of COIN but where afraid to ask.
    14-Why the Army with the most college degrees will always lose.
    15-Sting operations in COIN.
    16-How to recruit and test CI's(confidential informants) for COIN.
    17-Was Robin Hood the greatest COIN theorist of all time?
    18-How do you secure a population against an idea?
    19-How to make war using other people's stuff.
    20-SBW vs. the dead Prussian guy...why you should care.
    21-Nuclear weapons and COIN are they the final answer?
    22-Why should we protect their population if it hurts out own?
    23-The Declaration of War as a Strategic plan.

  9. #69
    Council Member Ron Humphrey's Avatar
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    Thumbs up Would particularly like to see

    Quote Originally Posted by slapout9 View Post
    I was in the Doctors office when I thought these up so they may be a little off

    1-How to win friends and kill your enemies.
    2-Population identification and census as primary intelligence,
    3-Geography as intelligence.
    4-What squad leaders need to know about COIN.
    5-Language as critical infrastructure.
    6-Law as critical infrastructure.
    7-Why people get pissed off when you invade their country and what you can do about it.
    8-How to talk to criminals,insurgents and other people who don't like you.
    9-How America can make money doing COIN.
    10-Killing the civilian support structure should you do it?
    11-The right way to do ASCOPE.
    12-Things the Air Force knows about COIN but never told you.
    13-Everything you wanted to know about Warden's 5 rings of COIN but where afraid to ask.
    14-Why the Army with the most college degrees will always lose.
    15-Sting operations in COIN.
    16-How to recruit and test CI's(confidential informants) for COIN.
    17-Was Robin Hood the greatest COIN theorist of all time?
    18-How do you secure a population against an idea?
    19-How to make war using other people's stuff.
    20-SBW vs. the dead Prussian guy...why you should care.
    21-Nuclear weapons and COIN are they the final answer?
    22-Why should we protect their population if it hurts out own?
    23-The Declaration of War as a Strategic plan.
    (Emphasis Ron Humphrey)

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    Any man can destroy that which is around him, The rare man is he who can find beauty even in the darkest hours

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