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ISAF's Vision For COIN

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  • #16
    Originally posted by S-2 View Post
    "I know you are joking..."

    Not really. Remember your drill sergeants?

    "The catchcry in basic that the Recruit Training Instructors used to shoot at us was "do you want to kill somebody recruit? Of course you do, otherwise why would you be doing all of this training!"

    Soldiers are in the business of mobilizing and applying firepower efficiently to achieve national objectives. The core competencies required to conduct a Corps mechanized attack are, by themselves, staggering.

    The core competencies required to execute nat'l objectives of nation-building are equally daunting and span (probably) a greater overall portion of governance. The two above scenarios sit on the opposite ends of the conflict spectrum and aren't reconcilable today IMV.

    We are fast approaching in America a point where there'll be a need for the Dept. of Nation-Buiilding. We'll quite likely be at this for some centuries. Right now I can think of three more nations that are immediate candidates for something similar-Somalia, Yemen, and Sudan. Most of sub-Saharan Africa frankly may qualify as time marches on. You've got an enduring problem with PNG that persists despite your best "kinder, gentler" efforts and a near equally disturbing climate in the Solomons. That doesn't even address Indonesia/E. Timor.

    I'm not so sure that all elements of civil-military assistance, foreign military purchases, cooperative efforts, and more shouldn't be housed under one roof in America. Maybe then we meet the personnel management dilemma of career paths while also mobilizing and synchronizing resources better to match needs. Right now I'm uncertain whether America, even at this late date, fully understands all the relevant elements that might already exist within our own government much less how to deploy those resources effectively.

    I don't believe that a switch can be flipped easily from the mindset needed in COIN to that required for clearing a trenchline with flamethrowers and cold steel. I also don't believe that full-blown combat ops are a thing of the past but do believe there are many latent enemies hoping we shall.
    Part of what I was getting at with the second quote that perhaps I didn't make clear, is that from my training experience I don't understand how the Australian Army has managed to stay skilled in the "nation building" type roles such as peacekeeping and COIN. However, we have stayed skilled at it, the manner in which we dealt with Cambodia, Bouganville and East Timor 20 years plus after we left Vietnam. Given that I didn't get trained to do any of those things as an enlisted man and I didn't get to serve on those operations to tell you how they ran, I can only deduce that the institutional memory is kept somewhere else ... perhaps in the heads of the our officers? I know that much of the syllubus at RMC Duntroon revolved around the Australian experience in Vietnam, so I can imagine that those lessons would have been passed on.

    My take would be that an officer should be well trained and smart enough to understand the difference between leading in a conventional war and in a nation building operation. If they know what is needed then they should be able to convey it to their NCO's and soldiers and if they are trained to be professional and well disciplined, they will do as they are told. If I am right about why we (and the British as well) managed to maintain that institutional knowledge, I'd hope that we ensure that future officers are encouraged to absorb the lessons of the WOT when it is over. There is nothing worse than having to re-invent the wheel.
    "There is no such thing as society" - Margaret Thatcher

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    • #17
      I'd add that I suspect that a great deal of the road to success in a COIN operation probably just involves the military involved being able to identify when that situation is likely to occur, and adopting the appropriate attitude by accepting that this is the way they are going to have to operate. Its really about professionalism, doing what needs to be done to achieve the outcome that the political leadership wants.
      "There is no such thing as society" - Margaret Thatcher

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      • #18
        I find that the older blokes bring life experience into the the equation - which has been important with the stress of COIN!
        Also for the younger / newer blokes the emphasis on the constant briefs of laws and threat of prosecution hanging over their heads effects their way of soldiering.
        I know since I joined - to the now fashionable role of Peacekeeping and COIN has made me question what I am doing at times!
        After all the same rules do not comply with the other side!!

        Regards
        Pioneer

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        • #19
          The essence of COIN is combined action unconventional warfare with a political end. It requires tactical sophistication and political finesse. I really don't see the point of introducing National Guard troops-- other than Special Forces units--into the complexities of COIN ops. But I can see--as Aussiegunner has touched upon--the creation and expansion of a COIN/UW-qualified MOS beyond the ranks of SF. With the likelyhood of more small wars in the future, we need more combat troops with a solid education in counterinsurgency operations. Send 'em to school, give 'em a patch.
          Last edited by Red Seven; 14 Jan 10,, 22:26.

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