Think Again: Counterinsurgency and Piracy

Colonel Gian Gentile has a new piece up at Foreign Policy entitled Think Again: Counterinsurgency continuing his theme on why the U.S. Army’s focus on nation-building at the expense of warfighting is misguided and dangerous.

The bottom line for Gian:

“The U.S. military is still too focused on conventional warfare.” – Absolutely not.

“Small wars are the wars of the future.” – Perhaps.

“The surge worked in Iraq.” – Not quite.

“General Petraeus is a military genius.” – Time will tell.

“The military should embrace nation-building.” – If those are the orders.

More at Foreign Policy.

Derek S. Reveron writes in FP – Think Again: Pirates – more than 20 countries are joining a special U.S.-led naval force to combat pirates off the coast of Somalia. But it won’t be warships that defeat these modern-day sea dogs.

Derek’s bottom line is:

“Piracy Is Making a Comeback” – No, it never went away.

“Pirates Are Terrorists” – Not yet.

“Pirates Are Terrorists” – Wrong.

“If Captured, Pirates Could Easily Be Tried for Their Crimes” – Guess again.

“The World Needs a War on Piracy” – Absolutely not.

More at Foreign Policy.