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David Ucko on COIN and its Discontents
David Ucko, as careful a student as anyone of the learning process through which the U.S. military has gone since 2001
To me, counterinsurgency retains value because it:
- reaffirms the need to understand the social, cultural and political dimensions of the operating environment;
- reaffirms the significant requirements of effective intervention in foreign polities;
- emphasises the political essence of armed conflict;
- recognises the local population as a significant player, rather than as an obstacle to circumvent;
- recommends a more-than-military approach to the problem of political violence.
What counterinsurgency does not do is:
- suggest the facility of foreign intervention so long as you’ve read Galula;
- provide a formula or scientific model to the problem of political violence;
- provide an answer to ‘the War on Terror’, or al-Qaeda writ large;
- provide an answer to what the US should do in Afghanistan;
- suggest that the use of force is irrelevant in modern conflicts.
It is on this basis that I would regret the disappearance, once more, of counterinsurgency. The one good reason to get rid of the term is precisely because of its divisive and distorting connotations; the aim then would be to talk more plainly about the requirements of war-to-peace transitions. But this presumes that the lessons of counterinsurgency have been sufficiently internalised that the concept has lost its utility as an important antithesis. And I fear that we are not quite there yet.
excellent.
is emphasizing the "consent of the governed" an emergent trend in COIN?
No, bored white suburban mall rats converting to Islam, just as bored hippies converted to Hinduism in the 60s did, is the new trend.
Go live in Saudi or Pakistan already. Test your faith, practice it. Islam is a performance based religion. Do it.
retard 4:32
like i said on the other thread, t'aint your bidness what women do in the ME, and it aint even your bidness what women do here. im an american grrl...i can wear a hijab or have an abortion as i damn please.
an' you can't do ANYTHING about it.
and let me REPEAT-- it is not your damn bidness what anyone does in the ME, especially women.
You have to talk about how horrible Islam is to women because that is your only rationale for being there now.
Otherwise you have to admit we spent 5000 american soldier lives and a trillion dollars because Bush was too stupid know that muslims like Islam.
and im an american muslimah. that means i can choose my religion, wear hijab, have abortions, and fuck the cute arab guy that sits next to me in advanced supersymmetry and string theory if i want to.
i can even post opinions on the abu muqawma blog that stupid white guys disagree with and start to adhom me over.
imagine that!
take your broken teeth and your empty wallets and go home.
from Iraq too, loozers.
AM,
Your former Hero's retirement ceremony is going on at Fort McNair as I type this posting. I'm watching it on the other-side of the pond, on AFN. Stanley looks a few years younger on live-tv, I'm guessing someone used some make-up on him to make him look pretty for the cameras.
Funny part is, his entire retirement ceremony is being done in utility uniform. How classy! Talk about last minute, no planning and pathetic! I've seen community college bands walk with better synchronization that this group of clowns they tossed together last minute.
If the Stanley has done so much and is proud of the uniform he wear's, why not take the time to put on your Class A's and retire with a little style. What a lazy SOB. Now I'm sure he or his people will make the excuse that, he's not a garrison / base Army Soldier and he's wearing the uniform he worked in most of his career... even still... LAZY and Pathetic. He has the Afghanistan Ambassador to the United States at this official U.S. Military function and you wear your BDU's??? Guess he tossed out his book of protocol? LOL What would it have taken McCrystal and General Casey to put on on a dress uniforms? another 15 minutes?
People like this who think they are above the law, above the regulations or feel as if they are better than those who serve in the rest of the U.S. Army or any branch of service.... people who think that - because they wear a patch that says they jumped out of a plane and ate nuts, tree bark and berries in the woods for 30 days and that MAKES THEM TOUGH, only shows me how stupid West Point has some of our current leaders.
Enjoy your retirement Stanley! You got what you deserved!
You got SH%$ canned! :-) You SH&% Bird!
Go to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and when you're black and blue with all your teeth punched out, then you can visit the US Embassy and ask for a ticket home, as many other dumb white girls from the suburbs have done in the past.
P.S. we know you're fat and ugly so don't imply you're hot stuff on here.
Tier 1 guys have no use for class As. Don't hate the playa, hate the game.
"an american muslimah. that means i can choose my religion, wear hijab, have abortions <====
I see. Exactly what is the Islamic authority for abortions?
I actually have heard of one. I doubt you did.
Can American muslimah (WTF) wear thongs, do drugs, play around? BTW I'm in favor of all but the abortions.
And Muslim women in the ME will like Islam, with their broken souls and shredded nethers whether they like it or not.
We do need to come home. So that we can ship you back to Pakistan. Try this nonsense there. I hear Gary Faulkner's looking for a sidekick.
"ask for a ticket home, as many other dumb white girls from the suburbs have done in the past."
You forgot to mention they then get laughed off the premises by the embassy staff.
Why would we want them back.
@ Rabi'a
Have you ever been to a stoning (Islamic law style)? You might want to reconsider your American sexual immoralities when speaking of Islam, because real Muslims will beat you silly willy.
Tier 1 ....define that... Tier 1 with a page 11?
Because Stanley and you got your DNA, Biometrics and voice analyzed in some database makes ya Tier 1? Dude, get over yourself... Go sit in your code of conduct wall-locker Sally!
I wonder if he got reduction in pay..... or lost a little of his retirement? Although, the public will never find out. Would hurt the morale of the military if troops found out Stanley got penalized for his little flub with the press. Oh well.
Recondo... it's people like you who end up in Cell Block C with Marion Knight, Jr. aka Suge... Watch your bung-hole dude!
They call us heavy hitters for a reason, kid.
Guess who gets all the grade A pussy in Green Zones all over the world, kid? Don't hate the playas, hate the game.
Recondo--I believe I speak for many of my Green Zone colleagues when I say you can keep your *grade A pussy*--Just leave us Josh. Good God, man--have you seen him dance? Such passion, such cultural flair, such je ne sais quoi--he even cakes on the pancake make-up to help hide his age!
I had no idea Josh was such a popular Bacha Bazi. Does he have a stage name like Josh Bieber?
If I should see Dr. Josh in a Bacha Bazi, I'd surely spank him for being so naughty. "You little Central Asia 'expert', you! (*spank!*)".
Shorter Ucko: "PC-COIN is not useless, because it employs me. A refined and accomplished scholar such as myself ought to be able to get a kebab every once in a while, without flashing his lithe thighs to a depraved Tajik warlord."
Actually, PC-COIN (quack counterinsurgency) does have a use. Its use is to conceal the policy option of PI-COIN (real counterinsurgency, aka racist, fascist colonialist imperialism). I suppose this adds up to the same thing, though. Alas, when it's all over - whenever that is - the male entertainment industry will have its hands full.
How many of today's leading foreign-policy scholars have the talent and dedication to truly master the ancient art of epicene allure? Now that's what I call "continuing education." Harvard, surely, will need a new department. If not two. And are we looking at a new curriculum for the A100 class? "How many people working for the White House passed through this door?" The Bacha Bazi conspiracy: deeper than you knew. Sure, we're pulling out in 2011. America, home of the firm and manly policy! Afghanistan, the original man's country! Friends with benefits forever...
It is my hope that after the cash runs out of this little adventure, all these "experts" find work as Bacha Bazis.
I have my dollar bills ready for you, Exum. You better be as good as Little Darlings in Vegas.
WTF? Are you guys telling me that the *cute Arab guy sitting next to me* that I'm hoping is desperate enough to f*ck a boring suburbanite like me would rather f*ck some dancing Angelino poser like Joshua Faust?!?!
Well, just so you know: I'm so hardcore, I like the taste of Josh's sh*t on my man's cock. Yeah--bring it on!
Oh wait, Did someone say something about Hindus and hippies being rebel chic? That sounds so much less gross. See you all in Goa. Rock on Josh--this grll is so out of here.
Goa?
Isn't that where Jason Bourne's girlfriend got shot? I heard they got some good weed over there. After this whole PC-COIN business falls through, I say we join the Pope and his crew, as well as CNAS's COIN "experst", in Goa and smoke out on the beach. Man, the past couple of years have been a trippy ride, let's spend all the money we made with this COIN BS and smoke out 24/7 420 days.
I think Recondo and Josh should have a dance-off on "Afghani's Got Talent" or "Dancing with the Taliban". The winner gets to be embedded with the Afghani Army for 2 weeks, wears pink nail polish on their little finger and plays receiver for the troops. This could be a close one!
You betcha Muslimah Grrl,
Muslim males are crazy like that. If you want a glimpse of what Dr. Foust is in for, check out this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVE60zwXx1k
This is what usually happens after the Bacha Bazi performance and the highest bidder has paid for his boy toy. Enjoy the video, you naughty muslimah grrl you!
This isn't a scientific poll, but based on AM comments, I think the Pope's firing is a net loss for COIN.
Poor Petreaus. I wish he had just thrown up his arms, claimed a bad ticker and run.
Let's replace him with Biden. I'd suggest they switch, but that would be too much motive for everyone, to include the Secret Service.
Don't worry dudes.
Cougars like her can look after themselves.
It's the poor Arab guy I'm worried about.
amazing how insecure you guyz are.
let me share a story with you from friday afternoon club.
our graduate department went out for some drinkses for my advisors b-day to a local club and right when we walked in some handsome jock walked over and ax me to dance. I said no ty politely and went to sit down with my friends.
Later I was dancin' with another grad student, who happened to be from Somalia.
The jock(who was likely pretty crunk at this point) walks up and ax wassa matta? am i the wrong color for you?
I said nope.
The wrong IQ.
With every post revealing more of her attitudes, Rabi'a shows that she was pegged awhile back. Actually, she revealed that when she praised Islam as the most PROGRESSIVE monotheism.
Rabi'a doesn't follow Islam because she believes in our Allah, she never mentions our Allah she's a western radical poseur embracing the faith for the fission of rebellion against her own, a long, long tradition. 20 years ago she'd be marching arm-in-arm with Jessie Jackson chanting "hey, hey, ho, ho, Western Civ has got to go!" If it were 40 years ago, she'd be waving the Viet Cong flag and claiming "Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh, the NLF is gonna win!" 70 years ago she'd be a card-carrying believer in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact inviting her friends, fellow travelers, and other associates to toast the victory of the people over the bourgeois while German troops marched down the Champes-Élysées and scorning Islam as incompatible with scientific socialism (though she might have had a few kind words to say on behalf of Haj Amin al-Husseini recruitment efforts in Bosnia). 90 years ago she'd be avidly interested in Jack Reed's exploits in revolutionary Russia.
Rabi'a's utterances are just warmed-over Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky (two elderly white men) sprinkled with a few superficial references to Islam. Not unlike Osama's speaches, actually. But they have nothing to do with faith in Allah or any attempt to truly embrace the real Islam, or even understand it. It is simply using the faith for her own purposes, in a way she decries (and yes, the cute Arab boy next to you will screw you, all the while seeing you for what you are: Just another Westerner spreading her legs for the frisson of doing it with "the other," using him - again in a long, ignoble radical trading. His contempt for you will be as real as your embrace of Islam is fake). There's a 60-40 chance at least that Rabi'a herself is white.
Rabi'a probably getting her education paid for by the same system she claims to hate, and 20 years, 40 years from now I bet she'll be collecting a paycheck from it as an academic or some such, just as with her equally contemptible progenitors in the Progressive movement. Probably claiming to students and in books that she understands Islam, but still projecting her own beliefs into it, having NO REAL INTEREST in the actual content of the faith itself where it doesn't fit with her own radical, WESTERN ideology.
Rabi'a is a dispicable scavenger of other people's sincerely held faith, and lived traditions, in a long and ignoble WESTERN RADICAL tradition, a user of other people's struggles. I abhor people like this, who think they are doing us favors, but really are using us in their own internal ideological-religious wars. I'll sooner have Moldbug or Elf over for dinner, with them, I know where I stand and we can talk honestly. Rabi'a is good only for one thing, and probably not even very good at that.
Vicariously mooch off of your own progressive tradition, "Rabi'a" and leave Allah and Islam out of it.
I'm sorry, but it was time to say that.
I respect a lot of the people here, but my contempt for "Rabi'a's" use and misuse of us grew too great for me to stay silent.
I will try not to make such an outburst again, though I suspect she will keep on with her disgusting parisitism of Islam and jackal-like scanvenging of it for her own ideological uses.
merci pour vos infinites de gentillesse, meseuirs.
i fear i am not adding to the disscussion, because im just a scapegoat at this point for stupid white guy insecurity and failure.
given that the commenter attitude likely reflects the military culture in Afghanistan, it is unsurprising that the current version of COIN is just more expensive, bloody, failsauce.
and let me remind you all....Welcome to Iraq and the Graveyard of Empires!....nearly 7000 served and still counting.
don't you care that american troops are still dying there?
remind me WTF we are doing there again? freeing muslimahs from the tyranny of hijab? building schools?
lawl.
Nigerians would love to pull a train on you, Saudis as well and Pakis. Line up, here comes the Muslimah choo choo train, bend your fat ass over ugly, the smelly Muslim army is paying your bung hole a visit.
Name 11:52
im not the fake here.....are you perhaps a maftoon? or just a garden variety orientalist?
al-Islam is the latest instantiation of monotheism and therefore the most liberal, according to evo theory of culture.
this is proven by the fact that al-Islam embraces the people of the book, both jews and xians, as worshipping the same abrahamic god.
Zinn? Chomsky? is that supposed to mean something to me?
sry, i only know chomsky from theory of language. that must be Moldbug.....this makes as much sense to me as his Lennon reference.
i dont believe in the deep grammer hypothesis (chomsky)......im a Steve Pinker language instinct kind of grrl.
definitely Moldbug.
*sock puppet alert*
"Rabi'a" - you are the sock-puppet, the poseur, and your reference to Edward Said, you are the flip side of the coin. You know nothing of a people you don't really want to understand, you're simply here to use us rhetorically for your own domestic purposes.
As Malcolm X said to a girl exactly like you when she asked what she could do to help, the answer is NOTHING. He changed his mind, but he was RIGHT - there is NO "HELP" we want from you. Your sort destroy anything it claims to "help," projecting your own insipid Western ideological radicalisms upon it.
You're here to troll people with recycled garbage. Another give away: "therefore the most liberal, according to evo theory of culture" - Why should Islam fit into your little western boxes? You seek for things that are "the most liberal," the most progressive. This is your schema, not Islam's. No love for Allah or submission to his will in anything you say, just a projection of your own culture's values, the very culture you claim - like so many before you - to abhor - while you project it upon us, and in the end you will force it's values on us if you get your way, just like the people you scorn.
Hmpf, and you claim to be well-educated, but you don't even understand your own tradition. Or anyhow, for utilitarian purposes, claim to not know it, though I think you protest too much not knowing Zinn or Chompsy. Either that or you truly are miseducated, like most of your ilk.
could we have a site admin determine Name's real ident, please?
im a frontpager on an Islam blog, Mr. Poseur. What school do you follow? What shayyk?
and there is no conflict between my university classes and al-Islam.
my shayyk Hamid ibn Muhammed ibn Muhammed al-Ghazali says----
A grievous crime indeed against religion has been committed by the man who imagines that Islam is defended by the denial of the mathematical sciences, seeing that there is nothing in revealed truth opposed to these sciences by way of either negation or affirmation, and nothing in these sciences opposed to the truth of religion.
definitely Moldbug.
has the stench of his weaksauce.
"Rabi'a" - you don't believe in Allah, do you? You're still an Athiest, aren't you? You believe only in "the most liberal, according to evo theory of culture," in other words, just as I said.
You don't have to answer in writing - what you write will be nothing but more deceit. But answer in your mind. You don't believe in Allah, do you? You're not a Muslim, you're a parasite, a jackal, using other people's beliefs in your own games, like so many before you. Now it's our turn, because we're the exotic "other," and yet you claim it is *others* who are the Orientalists.
Oooh, you're frontpager on a blog! Wow! That proves your faith in Allah!
I seem to have struck very deep indeed, someone posting as " Rabi'a" now wants real idents revealed.
You parasite Rabi'a's name just as you parasite Islam, just as a jackal scavenges from the lion. You prattle quotes when it serves you, but when the words are your own, they're always exactly what I say they are. Your own heart is revealed in your own words, and your own words are *NEVER* those of Islam.
As for my faith, I need not prove it to those who have none.
i don't want your ident.....i just think you are a sockpuppet for Moldbug.
you are not a muslim....you are an older western cauc guy with self-esteem problems, and not brave enough to get smacked down in his web-identity.
ca m'ete egal.
Why would I need a sockpuppet? Good Lord. Sometimes when two people say the same thing, it's just because they're both living in the same reality.
Off topic but really not, I feel curious readers of all races, creeds and colors might enjoy Samuel N. Harper's The Russia I Believe In (1945), a key source for my upcoming screed "Charles R. Crane: Father of US Foreign Policy." You'll see Crane, through his bacha-bazi Harper (more or less the founder of Russian studies in the US academy), do for Russia and Orthodoxy more or less what the Rabbit wants to do for Islam. Suffice it to say that the Russia Harper and Crane believe in isn't very Russian at all. Crane, indeed, was also the sugar daddy of none other than George Antonius... truly nothing new under the sun.
Now excuse me. I'm late for the showers at Man's Country.
@Compassionate and Merciful, (and I don't believe Moldbug...)
I'm really not anti-Muslim, although I had a bout of it a few years ago. That's when I was letting the enemy explain it to me. I admit I found the enemy argument compelling.
Yeah, you got Rabia all day.
We really need to take all our radicals and dump them in Saudi.
Then we can avoid these clashes of civilizations.
lawl, ill tell you how to avoid "these clashes of civilizations", Elf.
work in your own fucking garden.
Big White Xian Bwana take your dead and your broken teeth and go home.
Look, you are our garden. And don't worry we'll weed you.
For those who didn't catch it, she's white, parents Republican, at school on our dime, all American, and going through a reversion to Islam phase. Meaning college. I suspect New England.
As far as your ME fling yer having, at least we had teeth when we got there.
Rabi'a, why don't you take your fire and your bucket of water, set them down, and lick my hairy, unwashed Arab testicles?
@ Rabi'a,
If you were in a Green Zone, even if you're fat and ugly, working some high paying, plush office/"advisory" role for the gov't, you'd keep coming back for seconds from men of my ilk. We don't care if you're some proud "muslimah" from America, we only care about pleasing your wet (or dry, depending on age) glory hole. This is the reason people hated the Pope and those like him (Tier 1 types). We conquer anything and everything we see, and smell, and taste.
Rabi'a
The handsome young Jock that asked you for a dance,
was probably missing his Mother.
- Must have been his first trip alone to the big city.
Bet it was his first legal drink too.
Liquor went to his head.
Recondo, so you're saying the Pope and you and your brat pack of Tier 1 guys....you regularly play London Bridge and/or you make all the girls in the Green Zone "air-tight"???
Damn you really must be spending all your Danger Pay on pu**y with the Dyna-whores, cuz the local gossip was, your hog has shrunk to a miniature mushroom cap, from all those steroids you've been doing.
Sorry to hear that man... Is this the reason you can't keep a girl for more than a one night-er, perhaps because she's embarrassed for you?
I hope the Swedes have the technology that could help someone as disadvantaged as yourself. Good luck Gringo!
Ironically, several readers of my blog think I'm about to endorse Islam as the solution for all the West's ills. I have no such intention. But if I did, it would certainly be a racist, fascist colonialist-imperialist Islam.
For me, Islam - the real Islam - is a beautiful relic of the ancient world that existed before everything turned into Harvard, money and Michael Jackson. This is exactly why Islam needs to be separated from the West. It cannot withstand Western cultural imperialism, a la Rabbit and/or Londonstani. (Nothing can.) It will turn into Islamokitsch, hippie-Jesus Unitarianism with light Koranic trimmings, and rapidly decay into nothing at all. Just like the Church of England. Belloc had it right - religion without dogma is like a cheeseburger without the burger.
There are three ways to separate Islam from the West. Islam can attack the West and separate itself by a curtain of blood, for exactly the same reason the Rabbit isn't posting from Kabul or Tehran. It can wall itself off, which is why the Rabbit isn't posting from Mecca. Or the West can wall it off, for the same reason we keep lions in zoos and don't let them wander around the streets of San Francisco. Coexisting with lions would not be good for either the San Franciscans or the lions.
If lions could jump three hundred feet in the air and breathe fire, you could't keep them in a zoo. It really would be necessary to exterminate them, beautiful creatures though they are. So far as I know, Muslims can't jump three hundred feet in the air and breathe fire. It's not necessary to exterminate them. It's just necessary to stop granting them student visas, for our sake and theirs. Behind a good moat, they can purge themselves of their corrupt Western trash and restore the glories of the Caliphate. Or at least give it a shot. And shit, we might even learn something from them.
I certainly can't wait to see what Caliph Omar does with the Rabbit. No visas doesn't mean he can't put it on YouTube. The only question is: will it be as funny as the Oakland Pregnant Ho Battle? O Commander of the Faithful, if thou wishest it, Oakland is thine...
You can keep you Daisy dukes with Hijab type of Islam, Rabi'a. As a real muslimah from Jordan, I say we don't want you in our religion!
Mencius,
I could agree with separating the West from the Old East.
The booming economies of Far East and South Asia are another matter.
They are fine with modernity.
That's why it is their destiny to take the lead.
Because India and China are pagan.
And now they have figured out the secret of Apollonian science,
who can beat them?
In them, Greek secular reason has finally reconnected with its pagan roots.
But for USA, in such a world,
there would be real advantages to reverting to the Monroe Doctrine.
The two oceans would make a terrific moat.
AM I read your Tweet..... You driving around VA/DC on your Specialized road bicycle / Mountain Bike, must have looked polar opposite to Stanley M. retiring in his Utility Uniform on Friday. Slightly comical??? No? Surrounded by the Secretary of Defense, Foreign Diplomats and many other high-ranking officials in thousand dollar suits and he shows up in his BDU's? Yep, him in his BDU's must have been just as comical as you on your bicycle.
I'm sure you "looked marvelous" Fernando, but I bet if you were riding in a cab (in your salary range?) or on top of a Penny-farthing, you would have gotten a much different reaction. Sometimes it's all about presentation.
Stay Classy AM!
Interesting point Keid A, in particular on the mastery of Apollonian science.
The Chinese however are not having babies, which will yet undo them.
The Indians are another matter. However I think we made friends there....and then there's trade, and business and educational, cultural ties.
I too agree with a reversion to our traditional FP of the Monroe doctrine. The Oceans are a moat indeed.
We really must stop defining our borders from Panmunjon to Kandahar. Hawaii to Greenland works fine.
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