The United States of America And Counterinsurgency
A Tradition of Forgetting From the Stability Operations Field Manual 3-07: “[F]rom our colonial roots, when Congress appointed military commissioners to negotiate peace treaties and land purchases with Native American tribes, to our contemporary experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, our most enduring tradition has been an inability or unwillingness to institutionalize the lessons of those experiences.”
Definitons Warfare: a violent clash of interests between organized groups characterized by the use of force. Revolution: An unplanned, spontaneous explosion of popular will to overthrow the government. Coup d’etat: A small group of plotters replace state leaders with little involvement (and sometimes little support) from the populace.
Insurgency Insurgency: An organized movement aimed at the overthrow of a constituted government through the use of subversion and armed conflict. Insurgencies are designed to weaken the control and legitimacy of an established government, occupying power, or other political authority while increasing insurgent control. Have also called these: small wars, low intensity conflicts, asymmetric war, hybrid war, irregular war, guerrilla war
Counterinsurgency Counterinsurgency (COIN) is the sum of military, paramilitary, political, economic, psychological, and civic actions taken by a government to defeat an insurgency. Political power is the central issue: both sides aim to get the people to accept its authority as legitimate.
Two Approaches Enemy Centric Population Centric
Begs a Few Questions… When is a civilian an insurgent? Information? Lengths go to get it? Warn the enemy? Food & Supplies? Actively supply Search & Destroy Family member participating? Pick up a gun and participate when the regulars roll in
Who is Whom? How do you separate Insurgents from the Population? Curfew Concentration camps Cordon operations ID cards
State Building What level of democracy “allowed”? Elections? Own constitution? “Unacceptable” practices?
Do we promote democracy? Order and Efficiency Building infrastructure
Training Police/Army forces Police, or Army? Problems with recruits Personal vendettas Abuse Corruption How long a leash? Future leadership
How is help doled out? NGOs Infrastructure telephone, telegraph, schools, sanitation, hospitals Roads To what extent paving the way for dictatorship afterwards?
Factors of the Force that Matter: WHO you send in Racism Paternalistic treatment Abusive treatment Preparation Habits Drinking womanizing Past experience “You can never trust a nigger with a gun…These people are niggers in spite of the varnish of education and refinement. Down in their hearts they are just the same happy, idle irresponsible people we know of.” -- W. T. Littleton Waller
What parts are as good as it gets, and which can we change?