Reflections on the War in Iraq

[BlackSmokeRisinG]

'06 was around the beginning of hearts and minds, less "kinetic" actions, more partner action, more...idk...diplomacy...

By 07 the Sunni groups were regrouping and building, specifically in Anbar, Marines were still getting killed left and right, and the IA was still sloppy as the bad guys in a Chuck Norris movie.

We as a combined arms (INF/AR) Batt did few raids in 07 except when we had hot intel on such and such JAM guy or AQ torture house somewhere in Mansour. If anything, given hindsight, this article's premise is some sort of fallacy.

Revisionist History. Get used to it.

 

[DA SWO]

Interesting stuff here.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1777861254897344721

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0162243917727353

Pretty sure that's not what COIN was about guys, but glad the dudes who shouldn't be deep inland got to keep whacking dudes.

LOL, guy who wrote this appears to be Canadian, and associated with the University of Toronto.
Fucking expert.

 

[Marauder06]

If it remember correctly, he spent some time down range. But I think he’s off base on this one.

 

[ThunderHorse]

LOL, guy who wrote this appears to be Canadian, and associated with the University of Toronto.
Fucking expert.

Journalist who was embedded in both Afghanistan and Iraq, he's been there. Did he have a gun? No he had a pencil. Wrote a book on Pech Valley. The Hardest Place by Wesley Morgan: 9780812985221 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

Really doesn't matter if he's Canadian either. Now, does he have a liberal slant? Normally. Aren't most of the Military Shill Media liberals these days anyway?

 

[RackMaster]

Journalist who was embedded in both Afghanistan and Iraq, he's been there. Did he have a gun? No he had a pencil. Wrote a book on Pech Valley. The Hardest Place by Wesley Morgan: 9780812985221 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

Really doesn't matter if he's Canadian either. Now, does he have a liberal slant? Normally. Aren't most of the Military Shill Media liberals these days anyway?

I believe he was talking about the author of the research article.

Education B.Sc., Stanford M.S., Stanford Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology Jon R. Lindsay Associate Professor Interim Director, Trudeau Centre for Peace, Conflict and Justice Biography A political scientist with a background in computer science and military service, Jon Lindsay’s research examines the impact of technology on global security. His publications include China and Cybersecurity: Espionage, Strategy, and Politics in the Digital Domain (Oxford University Press, 2015), co-edited with Tai Ming Cheung and Derek Reveron, and articles in International Security, Security Studies, Journal of Strategic Studies, Technology and Culture, and the Journal of Cybersecurity. He is completing a book, Shifting the Fog of War: Information Technology and the Politics of Control, and working on a multi-institutional research project on deterrence theory. Professor Lindsay holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.S. in Computer Science and B.S. in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University. He has served in the U.S. Navy with operational assignments in Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East.

Faculty

 

[Teufel]

It's interesting that the author said that we didn't need to be doing raids in 2007. He must have been in a different part of Iraq than I was, or more accurately where the units I was supporting were. I remember it being... sporty.

It's a complicated topic. I was in Baghdad in 2006 and it was a fairly dynamic place. 85% of my platoon came home with at least one Purple Heart. That said I remember SOF doing a lot of pointless raids against low-level nobodies. We had a platoon come in one night with minimal coordination and accidentally hit a baby with a flashbang. Somehow this became my problem to deal with the next morning.

 

[DA SWO]

I believe he was talking about the author of the research article.


Faculty

Yes

 

[Gunz]

Aren't most of the Military Shill Media liberals these days anyway?

Oh yeah.

 

[BlackSmokeRisinG]

Literally what I had in mind when choosing my screen name.

Sounded better than "Smoke shooting up".