The US military has released a new manual on counter-insurgencies – its first guide on the topic for 20 years. The manual, which draws on lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan, underlines the need for troops to do more than fight.
The US military says the 282-page manual [.pdf – over 12mb], which contains chapters on intelligence and ethics in war, fills “a doctrinal gap”.
A spokesman for the US Army’s institutes of military education said the manual “codifies a lot of what’s happening in the field already”.
Col Steve Boylan said it reflected the changing nature of war, which goes beyond traditional fighting into reconstruction and nation-building.
Uh-huh. You already know how effective the authors have been.
It’s nutso stuff — one look at Figure 4.2 and you’ll know it’s bullshit.
All armies makes lousy occupation forces.
#2, wrong, wrong, wrong !!!
Don’t blame the military occupation forces for what those damned civilians are responsible for.
If the country doesn’t know they are beat then they deserve to be shot and beaten ruthlessly, without cause or even provocation. If they confessed in the first place then they wouldn’t need to be tortured to make them confess. Occupiers waste too much time with the civilians denying they have anything to do with the resistance before assassinating them.
/satire
#2
True. They weren’t trained for that task.
Uh-huh. You already know how effective the authors have been.
Wrong, wrong, wrong. If the military is good at anything it is learning from its own mistakes. But this is also their biggest weaknest. They are always fighting the last war.
Damn you Fusion, You had me for a moment!!!
Its entertaining,
Anyone really read that 12 meg PDF??
I didnt.
But, the idea of Military, is someone with a bazooka trying to kill a fly on a wall. You probably killed the fly, but took the wall, building, truck outside WITH IT.
When the military ISNT supposed to use FORCE, it should be removed.
There should be another selection between WAR, and politics, another group to send in AFTER, to clean things up and police what is happening. I thought that was the UN forces.
Apparently the “Law of War” in Appendix D has never been read by the U.S. forces
If the US pulled out 3/4 of their troops now.. brought them home for rest and to train new troops.. and said they weren’t coming back..
…….
Then came back in full force in a year(or 5) or so after the pullout.. in full force with 4-500,000 troops.. they could “win”/ claim victory
WONT HAPPEN.
Way cool! Some extremely valid points! I appreciate you
writing this post and also the rest of the site is also very good.