COIN


One thing that has been semi-lost in the McChrystal controversy is the validity of the so-called COIN strategy, which the general was closely identified with. Reporters and analysts seem to accept it as the latest and greatest thing.

Really, though, it's a rehash of old ideas that have never really worked the way advocates say they have. The U.S. tried a version of it in Vietnam, though no one ever - EVER - talks about that. And while Iraq is often cited as a validation of that strategy, that's a complete misread of what happened there.*

The problem is that these philosophies and strategies are advanced largely through politics - not Democratic-Republican politics, but the people politics everyone plays, whether they're in the military or government or vying for a talking head slot on FOX or MSNBC. They need a cause or something to talk about, a reason for to advance or to put down the next person.

Call me unreconstructed, but I think an army's job is to kill. You start doing other stuff, you get into trouble.

Yes, we don't want to have to use it too often. Killing sucks. It means you get killed, too. Sometimes. But if you're out to build sewers, you don't use tanks.

* Even if it weren't, there is a vast difference between Iraq and Afghanistan. Vast.