The End of Counterinsurgency and the Scalable Force Read more: The End of Counterinsurgency and the

[SpitfireV]

Shame he didn't. I hope those negotiation documents get declassed in the future, I'd love to read them.

 

[pardus]

That would indeed be fascinating. I'd also like to hear from a verifiable source/s the truth behind the SAS/SBS/Delta/Bin Laden, not quite killing him, deal too.

 

[AWP]

The US' view of COIN is a self-fulfilling prophesy: COIN will never work therefore we'll fail at COIN.

COIN isn't sexy, flashy, nor does it play well on TV. It doesn't involve tanks, carriers, or stealth aircraft; the US will never support COIN nor understand it even as the odds increase that we'll see it again and again.

 

[Crusader74]

The US' view of COIN is a self-fulfilling prophesy: COIN will never work therefore we'll fail at COIN.

COIN isn't sexy, flashy, nor does it play well on TV. It doesn't involve tanks, carriers, or stealth aircraft; the US will never support COIN nor understand it even as the odds increase that we'll see it again and again.

I don't understand why, considering the UK's successful COIN Op's in Oman ..

 

[AWP]

I don't understand why, considering the UK's successful COIN Op's in Oman ..

Because it won't allow wannabe 4-stars a stage on which to strut and preen nor does it require vast sums of cutting-edge kit. Our military and MICC won't stand for it.

 

[Crusader74]

Because it won't allow wannabe 4-stars a stage on which to strut and preen nor does it require vast sums of cutting-edge kit. Our military and MICC won't stand for it.

If anything they should be embracing COIN for it's practicability what low intensity conflict brings....less body bags coming home ans less media interference.

It was at least 20 years before it came out the the UK had SAS in Oman as opposed to the BATT teams they said were there.

 

[pardus]

Not that it was COIN but look at the USA's involvement in Afghanistan. A hugely successful specops campaign tat destroyed the Taliban/Al Qaeda with very few men and very few resources in a short amount of time. Then they went ahead and virtually invaded the country with a massive machine that has done what? drain the taxpayers wallet and steadily handed the country back to the Taliban. Unfuckingbeleiveable. Generals are the bain of the Military here, add fuckwit politicians and you have the perfect storm of incompetence and idiocy. Some would say to the point of being treasonous.

 

[surgicalcric]

It was at least 20 years before it came out the the UK had SAS in Oman as opposed to the BATT teams they said were there.

The UK has always been better than the US at keeping information concerning covert and clandestine actions out of the public view. If we hung the "unattributable sources" of these leaks they would stop pretty dam quick.

 

[surgicalcric]

Not that it was COIN but look at the USA's involvement in Afghanistan. A hugely successful specops campaign tat destroyed the Taliban/Al Qaeda with very few men and very few resources in a short amount of time. Then they went ahead and virtually invaded the country with a massive machine that has done what? drain the taxpayers wallet and steadily handed the country back to the Taliban. Unfuckingbeleiveable. Generals are the bain of the Military here, add fuckwit politicians and you have the perfect storm of incompetence and idiocy. Some would say to the point of being treasonous.

They being the CF CDRs who were afraid of becoming [more] irrelevant in these types of conflicts. After all they had to get their command time for promotion purposes - careerism at its worst.

 

[usmcwarrior]

Unfortunately, COIN is not "dead". It has become the holy grail for the political establishment and upper echelon military structure, both of which have lost their stomach for the fight. Curiously, the thing they seem to be all right with is an elevated death count for our War Fighting community. The inadvertent killing of "innocent" civilians on the other hand is intolerable even though in the region of the world we are heavily involved with right now, both the "innocent" population and the "insurgency" have more in common than they ever will with us. This piece ignores the single most damning decision in this whole episode and that is the willful denial of religious motivation for all parties in this part of the world. An "infidel" force will never be accepted by anyone. Even though gaggles like the Taliban or Al Qaida may be heavy-handed with the population, they are all duty bound to Koranic teaching to hate and kill the non-submitted Infidel world...Their hatred for us, then supercedes their temporary discomfort from the Taliban, Al Qaida and others. See www letthemfight blogspot com

 

[Th3 Maelstr0m]

Here's a video of Friedman debating Robert Kaplan on COIN as a strategy for anyone interested:

 

[Etype]

COIN will never work therefore we'll fail at COIN.

That's circular reasoning, not a self fulfilling prophecy.

Lets all step into Etype's world-
Here's what needs to happen for COIN to work- SF and all it's special skills/shops/nasties, CIA, Rangers, Tier 1 units have to be truly unleashed. We'll speak for SF, because that's what I can speak for most comfortably- we have some many untapped capabilities that are castrated through regulation/micro-management. We need to drop bombs on people that need to be bombed, shoot mortars at people that need mortaring, sneak and peek where there's shit to look at, take care of people in the gov't that need extra love...
It can be done, we refuse to do it- so I'll leave you with some more circular reasoning-
We don't commit to COIN so we can't execute COIN.