A Continuing Education in Military Science

Posted By Grim

Colonel (and Ph.D.) David Kilcullen has a piece up explaining the current operations in Iraq from a COIN perspective.  Dr. Kilcullen is, as BlackFive readers know but Pandagon readers probably do not, an Australian officer who has rewritten much of current COIN theory.  He is currently serving as General Petraeus' senior advisor on COIN in Iraq. 

He is posting to the web in order to talk to you, the citizens of Coalition nations, to tell you what we are doing in Iraq -- what the plan is, and why that is the plan.

Why did I mention Pandagon?  Well, there was this post:

Meanwhile, the right-wing plan for Iraq still boils down to the Parker-Stone calculus**:

Phase 1: Escalate hostilities
Phase 2: ?
Phase 3: Peace

I just have to shake my head.  We publish our COIN manual; nothing.  We let our senior officers blog about their plans; nothing.  They give interviews to The Atlantic Monthly; nothing.  They make themselves available to bloggers for interviews; nothing.

Every American has a right to comment on the war.  If you're going to avail yourself of that right, however, make an effort to learn something about military science and history, so you can understand and engage the discussion. 

Our military men want nothing more than for you to get what they're trying to accomplish.  No military has ever gone to the lengths ours has done to try and help you understand their mission. 

Reducing their plan to "?" is the mark of a mind that simply doesn't want to understand.  It's fine to disagree -- as I said in the comments to the previous post, I respect Gen. Zinni in spite of the fact that he and I disagree about when war is useful (in general) and what to do about Iraq (in particular).  Nevertheless, he is a serious thinker who is honorably engaged in the questions of the day.

That's not too much for a nation to ask of its citizens.

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A Continuing Education in Military Science

Colonel (and Ph.D.) David Kilcullen has a piece up explaining the current operations in Iraq from a COIN perspective.  Dr. Kilcullen is, as BlackFive readers know but Pandagon readers probably do not, an Australian officer who has rewritten much of current COIN theory.  He is currently serving as General Petraeus' senior advisor on COIN in Iraq. 

He is posting to the web in order to talk to you, the citizens of Coalition nations, to tell you what we are doing in Iraq -- what the plan is, and why that is the plan.

Why did I mention Pandagon?  Well, there was this post:

Meanwhile, the right-wing plan for Iraq still boils down to the Parker-Stone calculus**:

Phase 1: Escalate hostilities
Phase 2: ?
Phase 3: Peace

I just have to shake my head.  We publish our COIN manual; nothing.  We let our senior officers blog about their plans; nothing.  They give interviews to The Atlantic Monthly; nothing.  They make themselves available to bloggers for interviews; nothing.

Every American has a right to comment on the war.  If you're going to avail yourself of that right, however, make an effort to learn something about military science and history, so you can understand and engage the discussion. 

Our military men want nothing more than for you to get what they're trying to accomplish.  No military has ever gone to the lengths ours has done to try and help you understand their mission. 

Reducing their plan to "?" is the mark of a mind that simply doesn't want to understand.  It's fine to disagree -- as I said in the comments to the previous post, I respect Gen. Zinni in spite of the fact that he and I disagree about when war is useful (in general) and what to do about Iraq (in particular).  Nevertheless, he is a serious thinker who is honorably engaged in the questions of the day.

That's not too much for a nation to ask of its citizens.

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Via Small Wars Journal: I’ve spent much of the last six weeks out on the ground, working with Iraqi and U.S. combat units, civilian reconstruction teams, Iraqi administrators and tribal and community leaders. I’ve been away from e-mail a lot,... [Read More]