What we’re doing in Iraq and Afghanistan is not counter-insurgency but some form of occupation.  The governments of those countries can do COIN, and we can also do COIN but only in our country and its territories — where we are the government, in other words. The history of occupations since the end of WW […]

William S. Lind 26 October 2009 An article in the October 23 Washington Times points to what I think may be the next important evolution in Fourth Generation war. The piece concerns Mexico’s third-largest drug gang, La Familia. La Familia is best known for beheading people it does not like. But according to the article, […]

William S. Lind 19 October 2009 Last week I had the pleasure of helping lead a staff ride of Operation Albion for the Baltic Defence College. Especially for people with an interest in amphibious operations, Albion is one of the best case studies history offers. In Operation Albion, which was carried out in early October, […]

For you youngsters in the audience (or those who slept through PoliSci 102) , National Security Council Report 68, issued in April 1950 and approved by President Truman the following year, provided the blueprint for America’s conduct of the Cold War.  It’s a sophisticated document and well worth pondering for lessons today — along with […]

Retired Army COL Doug Macgregor’s latest take on what we should do in Afghanistan (500 KB PPT): The best we can do is withdraw our forces with the publicly stated understanding that how the Afghans govern themselves is their business. However, if the Afghans harbor anyone—al Qaeda or anyone else who threatens the United States […]

which I recommend everybody read: Reform or go home, by David Kilcullen in yesterday’s New York Times.  Pretty much sums it up — it’s the Afghans’ problem.  Although I think his emphasis on early elections is misplaced (in IWCKI, I quote Lee Kuan Yew as observing that elections may be the end point of an […]