Recommended Reading

Top Billing! Crispin Burke –Be honest: Who actually read FM 3-24?

The past year has done little to bolster the COINdinistas’ cause.  General David Petraeus, the lead architect of counterinsurgency theory, has ramped up airstrikes and night raids, and has even begun to re-institute body counts as a measure of effectiveness.  Last week, a UN report undercut US claims of success, pointing out that civilian deaths in Afghanistan increased twenty percent in the last year alone, with the ten-year campaign displacing over 400,000 Afghans.  And let’s not forget a recent scandal involving a beloved counterinsurgency text, “Three Cups of Tea“, which, to this day, still features in some military organizations’ recommended reading lists.

All this has led some to proclaim the “death of COIN“, and others to muse how to save the COIN baby from the bathwater.  In light of all the COIN resentment, noted COINtra Carl Prine has even quipped, “Everyone is Gian Gentile now“.

But is all the criticism deserved? Let’s take a look.

A tour de force by Starbuck. Hat tip to Adam.

Joseph Fouche –Unhappy Medium: The Perils of Annoyance as Your Strategic Default

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