Counterinsurgency Fun

Bad news for folks who thought the appointment of David Petraeus to command in Iraq was going to single-handedly undo centuries worth of the American way of war — we’re back to launching artillery barrages against neighborhoods in southern Iraq. Read the new Counterinsurgency Field Manual (PDF) that Petraeus wrote if you want to know why that’s a bad idea. Or read Jeffrey Record on how it is the US never seems to get this right no matter how many times we resolve to do things differently.