Sherman as a Counterinsurgent
Sherman as a Counterinsurgent by Thomas E. Ricks, Best Defense
I know, it sounds like a joke — the idea that General William T. Sherman's march across Georgia in November and December of 1864 was a classic counterinsurgency campaign. I can hear you mutter, What's next, the leadership tips of the Emperor Nero?
But, seriously: The more I read Sherman's memoirs and letters, the more I came to believe that in that campaign he consciously was practicing what should be called counterinsurgency. Now, it wasn't the caricature of COIN we sometimes see, of a hearts and minds effort to indiscriminately protect the people. I call that stuff "Rodney King COIN," in which the commander haplessly pleads, "Can't we just all get along?" I believe that Gen. Peter Pace, as chairman of the Joint Chiefs, kind of took a step down this road in his handling of Iraq, when he said that what we needed was for Iraqis to love their children more than they hated each other…
