A few days ago, a good friend of mine offered me an article about the current operations in Afghanistan, and asked me my opinion. I thought this blog might be a good venue to share that opinion...not to say I think my opinion deserves a wider audience than just a few emails between friends, but I was hoping in reading the article, you too might be able to share your insights and observations.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/06/30/call_in_the_calvary
The article talks mainly about a British Cavalry officer, Captain Charles Trower and his 1845 memoirs concerning his experience in Afghanistan. The article author asserts that the DoD could learn a lot about how to wage this conflict based on the experiences of this captain.
In reality, the defense department has used past experiences as a ready-made guide in how to execute the current era of persistent conflict we find ourselves in. We have borrowed liberally from the Brit's experiences in Malaysia and Iraq, as well as the French forays into Algeria and Indo-China. They have helped us in determining what does, and does not work when fighting an insurgency or asymmetric/ unconventional war.
We have our own set of experiences, too, learned from our time in Vietnam. Although, these experiences taught us mostly what not to do. Still, many of those lessons have not been forgotten.
Mostly I found the article to be applicable, but not that novel. I would suggest that we have people within our ranks who are already applying the three principles addressed in the piece: incentivize, live and let live, and go native.
While most of my experience lies in the Iraqi theater, I would say we would be wise to listen to, and study the experiences of the past. While our society has progressed immensely since 1845, it appears that Afghanis have not, so the lessons learned by Capt. Trower might be more applicable than we think.
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