Brainwashed

American Prospect offers a look at the development of counterinsurgency doctrine. Some of the analysis is highly debatable. One particularly interesting tidbit is that defense guru Edward Luttwak favors junking the Afghan war for reasons and in favor of a strategy I agree with:
“What the fuck are we doing there?” he asks. “Much better to [...]

Reply to Lindgren

In reviewing Jim Lindgren’s response to my criticism of his post on a “civilian national security force,” one thing stands out: He never addressed my suspicion that he was unaware of the debate, led by our current secretary of defense, that’s been going on about the need to beef up the civilian, non-military infrastructure for [...]

Rule, Britannia

The Telegraph reports that UK forces won a major battle in Afghanistan to deliver material to a hydro project. Interesting sidelight:
The Chinese-made turbine will be installed as part of a project funded by the American development agency USAID to increase the output of the Kajaki power plant.
Chinese engineers already on the ground will install the [...]

Civil-Military Cooperation

The Navy is in the midst of running a sea-borne aid mission to several Central and South American countries. One facet underscores a point Defense Secretary Robert Gates has been trying to make:
While “Joint ops” is all the rage in military circles these days, Continuing Promise takes the concept one step further, embedding civilians from [...]

Lindgren Responds

Volokh Conspiracy co-blogger Jim Lindgren responded to my post on his recent piece on foreign policy and Obama’s service program in comments. I’m taking the liberty of putting what he had to say up here on the main page to make sure people see it. Time doesn’t permit me to respond further today, but I [...]

Not Invented Here

Some days, you read something and just slap your head in disgust at the failure of otherwise intelligent people to stay current, or at least to know their own limitations. Today, that something was a post on the Volokh Conspiracy. Authored by Volokh co-blogger Jim Lindgren, it imputed shadowy motives to a comment Obama ad-libbed [...]

French Foreign Legion: Let the Afghans Do It

A French lieutenant colonel says Americans are shouldering too much of the counterinsurgency burden in Afghanistan and stunting the development of the Afghan army;
[US forces] generally make operational decision which, without the vigilance of the [Operational Mentoring and Liaison Teams] can sideline the ANA from the decision-making process; these then risk being turned into auxiliaries to the [...]