Please take the time to review these excellent slide shows about COIN lessons learned in Afghanistan. They are simple to understand, and each slide communicates clearly what principle they are trying to convey. These are all recent lessons learned, and contractors and military can all learn from this.
Especially for contractors, because the companies nor the military is doing anything to teach us about this stuff. In order for there to be a ‘unity of effort’, we all need to be on the same sheet of music out there. Contractors work around the local populations all the time. Your convoy mission, PSD mission, or static security operation all have an impact on the war effort, and how you interact with the local populations can either win the day for us, or damage the fragile efforts of the troops. Plus there are some vital lessons about the operational environment of Afghanistan, and what you have to prepare for to be effective there.
Get on board, take the time to review the slides, and pass it on. I also highly recommend getting the blog I posted below on your RSS reader. I also advise the companies to pass this around to your contractors, and communicate how important this. The purpose is to ensure that we don’t screw up the current war strategy. It is free, it is excellent knowledge, and there is no reason in the world why you shouldn’t pass this around to get the word out. –Matt
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USA and USMC Counterinsurgency Center Blog
Lessons Learned in Pictures
We obtained two great PowerPoint presentations that are just right for the troops: lessons learned matched to photographs. One lesson learned picture tells a thousand stories? One is from the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines titled “COIN in Helmand Province, After the Clear – Thoughts and Tips on Non Kinetic Actions.” See it here. The second is from Afghan National Army, LTG Zazai, the Corps commander for the ANA 205th Corps, titled “The Counterinsurgency Fight in 205th Hero Corps”. Click here to view.
Blog post here.
Hi Matt,
I certainly don’t wish to sound critical but this is stuff that ought to be part of basic training. I know it was part of ours.
It is a good step forward but if troops are suddenly, when out in the field told to abide by these things, it will change the mind-set of the troops and make them believe that they were doing things wrong. If they decide that, they may also question what else they were doing wrong and thus they may question their training.
As I said, a good step forward but I believe the way it is put to the troops is equally important.
Rgds,
Eeben
Comment by Eeben Barlow — Thursday, November 5, 2009 @ 5:56 AM
Eeben,
Excellent points. I have to believe that at some level, COIN training is presented to them before they ship out. The slides I posted are part of a conference, and I am not sure if they are required viewing for all the troops. I hope they are used to supplement any kind of COIN spin up program, and I really hope that contractors out there will take the time to go through this stuff. -Matt
Comment by headjundi — Thursday, November 5, 2009 @ 9:45 AM