Human Terrain & Anthropology (merged thread)

[SWJED]

**Snip**

You know sitting back as an outsider to the majority of thinking of the writers on this blog most of you have your hair stand on end when certain things are attacked or questioned. Those things are: anything that John Nagl or Dave Kilkullen writes; anything that questions the perceived success of the Surge; anything that fundamentally questions the efficacy of Coin operations to include its operational doctrine. The only topic I have seen on this blog that had drawn serious and deep debate is the discussion currently ongoing over waterboarding and torture.

gentile

Gian,

Not so, but I doubt I could change your mind as you are very persistent in pointing out our flawed thinking whenever someone here (or elsewhere for that matter) agrees with certain counterinsurgency experts, FM 3-24 and items concerning the Surge.

One could say just the opposite concerning many of your comments here and on the blog - your hair stands on end when anyone agrees with the writings of Nagl or Kilcullen, success of the Surge... Your opinion has been respected here and we ask you do the same for other Council members.

Dave

All,

I try to stay hands off as much as possible on the Council as it is pretty much self-policing and several volunteer moderators have pitched in to help keep things professional and sane. This is especially important as we have grown of late and indications are this trend will continue.

Mark has raised a very good point - one that we all need to heed here:

My observation of this discussion board has been that all comment is welcome as long as it conforms to the accepted standards of reason, politeness and evidence based argument. If you have something to say about any of the things you mentioned I would urge you to say it - keeping within the guidelines you accepted when signed up.

Dave / SWJED