John Nagl was brilliant and hilarious! Congratulations on a great job.

I agree and this venue likely reached a whole segment of the U.S. population with little understanding of COIN and what it takes to prevail.

Few authors -outside of, say, Robert Conquest - can speak extemporaneously as well as they come off when you read them in a professionally edited text. This was very well done by LTC. Nagl.

Way too totally, totally cool; Nagl on the Daily show!! Such a good thing to have Nagl talk so magnificently on Coin so that so many Americans will understand it.

What I am really hoping for is that one of Nagl’s publishers will figure out how to publish a new edition of Robert Pirsig’s classic text on metaphysics with an introduction to it by Nagl. Then the American people will understand how we in the American Army fight counterinsurgency wars in a way that the warrior Bruce Lee (“the art of fighting without fighting") would understand.

Next I am really hoping for a new required short reading list accepted by the army and marines for every infantry and cavalry lieutenant heading for Iraq. It might look something like this:

*"Marine Corps Small Wars Manual"

*"Learning to Eat Soup with a Spoon," by John Nagl

*"Instructions for American Soldiers Serving in Iraq during World War II" with an introduction by John Nagl

*"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," by Robert Pirsig, with an introduction by John Nagl on the metaphysical aspects of counterinsurgency warfare (this is the one I am hoping a publisher bites)

Now this would be a professional reading list to kill for.

John Nagl mentioned that after Vietnam, the military didn't focus on counterinsurgency. I've heard and or seen this comment from other members of the military recently in different media.

I can understand this attitude up to the end of the USSR. But after encouraging the Iraqi uprising after Desert Storm and intervening, the humanitarian relief in Somalia, embassy bombings, etc. didn't anyone/group in the military start to reassess future responses?

Will these lessons in Counter Insurgency be swept under the rug after Iraq? Or has the military ESTABLISHMENT finally gotten the lesson that small wars aren't going anywhere soon?

Because looking over the next 10 years, what we are seeing in Iraq could easily happen in Cuba once Castro reaches room temperature. All of the Mexican and Columbian drug cartels would love to move their base of operations 90 miles from the US, with a government that they will not just control or influence, but run.