Wanted in Pakistan: Competent Counterinsurgency - George Packer, The New Yorker
... The US government has just released its new counterinsurgency guide for the civilian agencies, written under the direction of David Kilcullen. During the Bush years, a sort of counterinsurgency insurgency sprang up both in and out of the government and military - a group of thoughtful dissidents who, from very early on, tried to change American strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan. Kilcullen was one of the key figures, and now other members of the group are being appointed to or talked about for important posts in the Obama Administration, including Janine Davidson as deputy assistant secretary of defense for plans, Colin Kahl for the Middle East, and Phil Carter for detainee issues...
I know them all, think highly of them, would be very happy if they join the new administration, and wish them well. They've all absorbed the hard lessons of the past seven years of war, often up close. I don't know if there's still time to apply these lessons in Afghanistan, and I don't know if Pakistan even wants to learn them. But the new group in Washington might want to send a copy of both counterinsurgency manuals to the government in Islamabad, and another copy to the team of American advisers there.
More at The New Yorker.