More Hot (COIN) (Podcast) Action

Matthew Bell has devoted an entire podcast (.mp3) to the debate over counter-insurgency and current operations. Lots more from Nagl, Flournoy, Exum, and Gentile. Again, Bell really brought out the personal side of this debate in a way I have not heard others do. Note the way both Nagl and Gentile repeatedly reference their personal experiences in Iraq, as well as the way Nagl mentions the officers and soldiers lost in Iraq and how those losses drive him. Overall, this was a fair treatment of the issues. I'll challenge Gian on one thing, though:

Bell: So you don't think there was a shift from Priority #1 being "go get the bad guys on this list" to Priority #1 being "protect the people" ...
Gentile: I -- no -- I don't -- no, I don't agree with that at all. I mean, when I was in West Baghdad in 2006...

Look, the last thing I am going to do is start telling Gian what his particular unit was or was not doing in 2006. But there is little doubt that, between 2003 until 2007, the U.S. military in Iraq shifted from an enemy-centric approach to a population-centric approach. [American Influence]