NYT: Military Hones a New Strategy on Insurgency

[cal04]

The United States Army and Marines are finishing work on a new counterinsurgency doctrine that draws on the hard-learned lessons from Iraq and makes the welfare and protection of civilians a bedrock element of military strategy.

The doctrine warns against some of the practices used early in the war, when the military operated without an effective counterinsurgency playbook. It cautions against overly aggressive raids and mistreatment of detainees. Instead it emphasizes the importance of safeguarding civilians and restoring essential services, and the rapid development of local security forces.

The current military leadership in Iraq has already embraced many of the ideas in the doctrine. But some military experts question whether the Army and Marines have sufficient troops to carry out the doctrine effectively while also preparing for other threats.

The subtleties of the battle were highlighted Wednesday when the Iraqi Interior Ministry suspended a police brigade on suspicion that some members had been involved in death squads. The move was the most serious step Iraqi officials had taken to tackle the festering problem of militias operating within ministry forces.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/05/washington/05doctrine.html?hp&ex=1160020800&en=e6b7b0a33710f246&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[babylonsister]

1. Military or Rummsfeurer? nt

[saigon68]

16. More lies from a bunch of Corrupt War Criminals

meanwhile their subordinates are slaughtered by the hundreds

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Unfortunately, Based on the Last Few Days

It doesn't seem to be working. :-(

(Of course, measuring outcomes went by the wayside years ago)

[wellst0nev0ter]

3. Too Little, Too Late

The one general who actually utilized counterinsurgency tactics, General Petraeus, is now given some desk job stateside teaching other officers. That's your reward for doing something right in this regime.

[BrotherBuzz]

4. I thought Commander Cuckoo Bananas strategy was....

"Damn what those pesky military boys say, stay the course because I'm the decider". :shrug:

http://decider.cf.huffingtonpost.com/

[Warren Stupidity]

5. Here is my new strategy:

Get the fuck out of there. Now. Leave. Go home.

[daleo]

6. I guess "kicking ass" isn't such a great idea after all.

You just alienate the population and get your ass kicked right back.

[me b zola]

7. Yeah, their last plan did a heck of a job

Suprising how the Pentagon doesn't want to talk about how in 2004/5 they had decided to use the "Salvador Option" to quell the insurgency. Amazing that by creating and training death squads the Pentagon wasn't able to bring peace to Iraq. </sarc>

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6802629/site/newsweek

[gratuitous]

8. Sounds like non-military solutions . . .

Let's see, avoiding overly aggressive raids and mistreatment of detainees. Safeguard civilians. Restore essential services. Deploy locals as your security forces.

None of these are uniquely military duties. What are our troops over there for?

[ShockediSay]

9. Repugs protect us here by fighting there-UNLESS your child enlisted

in the armed forces and turned out to be one of the 23,500 or so killed or wounded w/ disability benefits cut and run

OR

enlisted to serve as a page in our Republican controlled "family values" Congress

[sofa king]

10. In other words, it's back to the old SAS/Green Beret doctrine.

Which is fine, because it has been known to work, if you consider what's going on in Afghanistan "working."

But it's rather sad that we have had that policy for roughly the past 90 years and until now tried to apply it uniformly, the exception being our current stay in Iraq.

It casts the entire venture in the stark light of rapacious vandalism, and it has instantly wiped out whatever credibility the U.S. military had so painstakingly gained over 90 years of often genuinely decent overall behavior as occupiers.

[Screwfly]

13. I have my doubts

I bet the generals are ready to thrown in the towel over the Iraqi insurgency. Things the military mind took for granted in warfare are being stood on there head in that country. According to Machiavelli subduing a country like Iraq, which was governed by an autocratic ruler, is supposed to be easy. (Perhaps if Bush had appointed a viceroy to rule the county with a iron fist...) Conventional wisdom also dictates that the only way to defeat a guerilla force is to make the population more scared you than they are of the guerillas (I can't image how anybody could out terrorize the terrorists over there…).

Oh hell--build fortresses, build concentration camps, build dungeons, build whatever--hey crap, maybe something will work in end...God I wish they would pull out of that country already.

[sutz12]

11. Three and a half years in....

and they decide that they can't defeat an insurgency with conventional forces. I guess they should be applauded for coming up with some new and innovative solutions. Pity they didn't learn from:

The Romans in Germany
Napolean in Spain
HItler's Germans in Yugoslavia
The French (and us) in Vietnam
The Soviets in Afghanistan (geez, that was only 20 years ago)

I'm sure there are dozens more examples of how determined insurgents won against conventional forces.

There's an old saying:

Learn from other peoples' mistakes. You don't have time to make them all yourself.

[ConcernedCanuk]

12. Murrikkkan War-Machine is all fecked up - always will be

.
.
.

JFK was the last real chance for the US, but the robber barons offed him

and the populace has slipped into apathy and complacency

recipe for a failing nation if'n ya ask me

[patrick t. cakes]

14. what about using

the old reliable right wing maneuver of "kill 'um all let god sort 'um out".

[TomClash]

15. In other words

they have decided to use classic counterinsurgency tactics that have been around for at least 50 years. Doesn't anyone in the chain of command spend time at the Army or Naval War Colleges anymore?