Fri, 2007 Jan 12
Counterinsurgency
I’ve found the past week’s buzz about Lt. Gen. Petraeus interesting enough to start reading the Counterinsurgency Manual (big pdf) which he co-authored. It was probably Slate’s Fred Kaplan’s assertion that Petraeus “is probably the smartest active-duty general in the U.S. Army today” (http://slate.com/id/2157155) that got me intrigued enough to start into a 282 page military manual. Well that and my recent interest in the Ottoman Empire and its military history.
Military history and strategy interest me, but I’ve spent only a minimal amount of time studying them, so I’m not going to make a fool of myself by trying to analyze the assertions of Petraeus and co-author Lt. Gen. Amos. But I did want to comment a little. I’m at page 19 (or 1-7), so I can also attest that I would be amiss to comment much at this point anyway.
All that said, I have been very impressed with the willingness of Petraeus and Amos to respect the “other”. By respect I mean that they do not dismiss the tactics of insurgencies simply because, in the context of this manual, they are the “enemy”, but rather acknowledge both the benefits of an insurgent approach by those others, as well as the astuteness of their tactics. In particular, I just completed a section in which the manual outlines Mao’s tactics for overthrowing the previous Chinese government (another note: I know next to nothing about Chinese history). Instead of questioning his assertions, the authors let Mao’s strategy speak for itself, because they acknowledge it was effective, and is often replicated.
Okay, actually that’s all I had to say about that. Should I manage to finish the manual, I might comment more. Just interesting thoughts.
