NYT: For First Time Since Vietnam,Army Prints Guide to Fighting Insurgents

For the First Time Since Vietnam, the Army Prints a Guide to Fighting Insurgents
By DOUGLAS JEHL and THOM SHANKER

Published: November 13, 2004


WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 - For the first time in decades, the Army has issued a field guide to counterinsurgency warfare, an acknowledgment that the kind of fighting under way in Iraq may become more common in the years ahead.

The Army field manual on counterinsurgency operations is the first since the early Vietnam era, and the first ever intended for the kind of regular Army units now embroiled in battles in Iraq, as opposed to the Special Operations forces who have taken the lead in previous counterinsurgencies.

Under orders issued in February, the manual was prepared on an accelerated basis by the Combined Arms Center in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and was distributed to all officers, in Iraq and elsewhere, beginning last month. An introduction says the "aftermath of instability'' in Iraq that followed the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime underscored the need for an updated Army guide to counterinsurgency warfare....

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The new Army guide contains instructions on such matters as searching a family car and setting up a hasty checkpoint. Other passages address the role played by "transnational insurgents,'' like the foreign fighters in Iraq, and emphasize the role of intelligence, rather than Vietnam-era search and destroy missions, in finding insurgents.

The guide also includes a stark warning about the dangers of prolonged counterinsurgency operations, saying that the longer American forces take the lead in such efforts, the greater the resentment they breed among the host-country population....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/13/politics/13army.html

good planning from guys who never fought in a war...dumb fucks. his daddy and his guys were right-don`t go into the cities....

that this wasn't going to be like it was against the Germans
in WWII again. Dumb as rocks.
:puke:

snip>
In some ways, military officials said, the guide just reflects tactics, techniques and procedures that troops in Iraq and Afghanistan already use, such as armoring vehicles against improvised explosives.

But for a hierarchical organization like the Army, the distribution of the guide is a sign of the importance being attached to the issue.

armoring the vehicles as this pamphlet states in suggestive tactics instead of spending the money on redundant pamphlets?! :cry:

why they are doing the same as they did in Vietnam? Those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it.

We must get smarter about countering the propaganda and reaching the hearts and minds of our Fallow Merkins.

Start reading George Lakoff's work on 'framing' issues in language that reach the primal parts of the brain, namely, self-protection and protection of whatever is defined as family.

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/10/27_lakoff.shtml

Understand psychology, history, language themes, and media messengers who will help save us from the Mayberry Machiavellis and the Fuelocracy.

The military calls this 'force magnification.' That is, getting help from a few important individuals who can get the cooperation of the larger population.

DO IT NOW! I'm working on it and will share what I can...