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What does Ja Rule think about COIN?
I don't even know where I come off complaining about Tom Friedman. Yesterday, I was sitting in the CNAS conference room going over our presentations for tomorrow with my colleagues when, through the glass, I noticed a story on CNN about how actor Jon Voight was speaking out against President Obama. Russell Simmons then appeared to defend the president.
I suppose I could have just shaken my head about how ridiculous U.S. cable television news is and gone back to listening to Nagl talk about Iraq, but instead I had to work hard to keep from laughing because all that was going through my head at the time was this bit of Dave Chappelle monologue. This could be NSFW (language), depending on your workplace, so use headphones:
That was funny...thanks, Ex,
That was funny...thanks, Ex, I've almost finished reading the book of yours I saved during our move to the Pentagon...nice work...
Does anybody else think that
Does anybody else think that "The Accidental Guerilla" would be an excellent title for a sitcom?
http://d-squareddigest.blogspot.com/2009/06/idea-for-sitcom-does-anybody...
/shakes head. WWJD (What
/shakes head.
WWJD (What would Ja Rule do?)
The last link in the post
The last link in the post goes to the wrong place
But, he is the pharaoh, the
But, he is the pharaoh, the anti-christ, the Beast with a trillion heads, dontcha know?
Apropos, General Petraeus is really boggling some minds over at Pajamas Media...
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/general-petraeus-disturbing-statement-about...
No happy thoughts
No happy thoughts here...
372 comments on the Voight post you linked. In a previous post you expressed dismay that "all the average university-educated American will know about the Lebanese elections he or she will learn from today's Tom Friedman column." I would say you're quite the optimist. At best, forty percent of all of-age Americans don't vote. Half of those who do don't think about politics much outside of their time in the booth. Of the rest - excluding defense insiders - maybe half of them won't yawn or check their watch (or turn the channel) when Iraq or Afghanistan are mentioned, much less Pakistan or Lebanon. One out of a hundred might be willing to learn something beyond whatever reinforces their voting booth decision. One percent of those might do so actively (say, search for info not in their daily paper or preferred TV channel). Everyone will claim to be a member of that group.
On the upside, unless expressed as percentage of population that's not a small group, and certainly not unimportant. Some of us live in a world where this stuff matters, others live in a different world.
Greyhawk: Im not sure about
Greyhawk: Im not sure about your numbers, seem a bit pessimistic to me. Having said that, you would not believe the flak one gets from liberals for going to sites like this and reporting back that not all US soldiers are republican loonies, nor murderous scum. Just as I may imagine one would get flak from a lot of republicans if one came out and admitted that maybe social science has some points, and that theyre not all liberal eggheads who want only to save the moose or whatever.
The best folks I have found to discuss from both sides of the isles has been, strangely enough, hard tech folks from both sides of the fense. But there is a intense need for a "COIN/strategy for dummies" text to be distributed on the net. To put it mildly.
Re: Fnord on
Re: Fnord on Pajamas/Petraeus: "Nicholas Guariglia is a foreign policy analyst and columnist who writes on Islam and Middle Eastern geopolitics. He is a contributing editor for Family Security Matters" - where the top headline today is John Voight.
Fnord, "COIN/strategy for
Fnord,
"COIN/strategy for dummies" - I've been grappling with that. It's one reason why I've injected some very obvious and fundamental points into comments here (or the blogspot site) and SWJ. That's probably annoying to the more advanced reader, and neither site is for the beginner, but a few will show up.
The question is, are there people who care but who don't already know? I'd like to think the answer is yes.
Greyhawk: Im more thinking
Greyhawk: Im more thinking of a short and sweet summation, distributable through the net and distributed. Not a dumbed down version, but a central set of powerpoints (hah) short arguments, examples, and a readinglist. PRactical and theoretical shit. It would be an excellent fundraiser for CNAS, wouldnt it? Gotta be an educationgrant appliccable in working out something like that? At the least, it could be an excellent primer for first-time deployees. Im still puzzled on why it hasnt been done.
(The 10000 dollars we got for a computer-skill course for pashtun and iraqi kids, we got over the culture and arts budget, lol.)
WOrd doubling again. Damn,
WOrd doubling again. Damn, you should let author-edit be included here. Distributed, even.
Capt Travis Patriquin's
Capt Travis Patriquin's slides are a good start. - though they are dumbed down to the point of sheer brilliance.
Now I must seek a full version on the innerwebs, but there's a small sample included in this document
http://usacac.army.mil/CAC/milreview/English/MarApr08/Smith_AnbarEngMarA...
...which is not dumbed down, serves as something of an intro to COIN, and is a must read.
I can't recall whether I first saw Capt P's slides at home base while preparing to "surge" or in Baghdad in '07, but they made the rounds. "Viral" even.
(A moment of silence for the fallen.)
Ive seen them. But they are
Ive seen them. But they are a we bit too-stupid style. Dont underestimate 18year olds.
Any plans to make the
Any plans to make the multimedia pieces [I presume the conference video will end up being hosted like many of the recent events] available as podcasts? CNAS has released a bunch of multimedia stuff that for whatever reason hasn't been folded into the podcasts of late [which are oddly hard to find on your website, BTW] any reasons behind this?
Any plans to make the
Any plans to make the multimedia pieces [I presume the conference video will end up being hosted like many of the recent events] available as podcasts? CNAS has released a bunch of multimedia stuff that for whatever reason hasn't been folded into the podcasts of late [which are oddly hard to find on your website, BTW] any reasons behind this?
Oh, for pete's sake. Sorry
Oh, for pete's sake. Sorry about that - seems to be some oddity with "Magnum" not refreshing promptly so as to show that one's comment has actually taken.
Fnord FWIW, I always
Fnord
FWIW, I always wondered who his intended audience was, but I've never been convinced I knew the answer.
But the link is to the broader story on Anbar '06, which is about as good an intro to COIN (in operations - or application, if you prefer - not theory) as is around. If any know of any better, it seems this thread is actually a good place for such basic stuff to be "on topic".
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