Summary:Â The recent story about militia in Iraq is rich in lessons for us. Not about the futile lost war. But about us and our ability to see and understand the world. A hot story from The Guardian, 6 March 2013 — based on an investigation by the Guardian and BBC Arabic: After the Pentagon …
Why are we surprised that we supported militia in Iraq, and they used torture? Read More »
Surprise! We’re recruiting milita to help in Afghanistan. It’s a new tactic, just as it was in Iraq and Vietnam. It’s a direct violation of the COIN manual (FM 3-24), with its tiresome emphasis on building the legitimacy of the local puppet government. But then that was just a facade anyway, a trick to build support …
Clausewitz spoke of a trinity of the people, the government, and the military. The rise to dominance of fourth generation warfare has made this conceptually useless, providing only a perspective from which to see how the world has changed.  During the past 60 years a new trinity of modern war has emerged for armies fighting in foreign lands. Chet Richards …
The trinity of modern warfare at work in Afghanistan Read More »
First in another series of Iraq situation reports. As with the fable about the blind men and the elephant (look here for several versions), we can look at Iraq from different perspectives. Each gives different insights. One day, a rajah’s son asked, “Father, what is reality?” “An excellent question, my son. Come, we will go …
