ABSTRACT
The word, of course, is “counterinsurgency,” and our just-announced new commander in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, was chosen for the position precisely for having a “unique skill set in counterinsurgency.” The fact is that counterinsurgency simply does not come naturally to Americans. One would more accurately say that counterinsurgency is found in the dim and shadowy pasts of warfare. The Pentagon is even changing its budget, attempting to “institutionalize” counterinsurgency doctrine. That is one reason the insurgents most often win in these fights, and that is one reason americans should be mightily wary of “institutionalizing” and making into an “orthodoxy” something as slippery and bedeviling as counterinsurgency. In our terms, attacking those ideological Islamic irregulars in Afghanistan and Pakistan means backing up military action with civic programs and, perhaps as in Iraq, working through local tribal leaders, making them our representatives on the field of battle.
