The Bush Wars: Ellis on Population-Centric Counterinsurgency by Brett Friedman, War on the Rocks
This is the first in a series of three adapted excerpts from 21st Century Ellis: Operational Art and Strategic Prophecy for the Modern Era, published by Naval Institute Press. It features part of Ellis’ article, “Bush Brigades,” which first appeared in Volume VI, Number 1 of the Marine Corps Gazette in March of 1921. Check out part one, “America Fighting in the Philippines.”
Comments
Pete Ellis was ahead of his time. At the end of his life he was travelling around the Pacific "engaging" with foreign personnel, attempting to discern the locations suitable for amphibious landings. There are many lessons to be learned from his travels from the independent nature of his actions, the connections he made, the information he collected and passed back to the Corps. The culmination of his readings led me to believe that he wanted to use his "engagements" to foster relationships that would pull US forces forward in a time of crisis.
I know that many are against advising and Building Partner Capacity (BPC). However, manning, training, and equipping foreign armies to defend their sovereign territory and to assist the US in a time of crisis to me seems like a logical idea. I will caveat that statement with, it must be done in as a whole of government effort, designed to meet US strategic objectives, with policies that reflect quid pro quo for the expenditure of US efforts and money. I think Pete Ellis would agree with a concept like this, and "Engagement Pull" designed to provide tangible results the US, or "Uncle Sam" could use. Whether it is a plot of land on an island to emplace a missile platform and control an SLOC, a country to overfly in support of operations, or just to begin to make a partner out of a nation Pete Ellis was on to something that he was never able to finish, and we still have not been able to discern all of the lessons his efforts can teach us.
- God bless ya' Pete, Semper Fidelis!