Linked is the latest USA/USMC Counterinsurgency Center / U.S. Army Stability Operations Proponent / U.S. Army Security Force Assistance Proponent SITREP dated 4 January 2010. Here are the Director's opening remarks:
As the counterinsurgency community continues to prepare leaders and units to confront and defeat irregular threats, it is clear that in spite of much progress, there is much yet to be done. All of our efforts should focus on enabling leaders, teams, and units to be better prepared for this challenge than our adversaries. Counterinsurgency at its core is a competitive and lethal environment in which those who learn faster and better win. Rapidly assessing, understanding, and adapting are essential to counter the nexus of criminality, corruption, instability, and narcotics that fuel ongoing insurgencies. Only in this manner can we generate and sustain the momentum -- physical, social, political, and psychological -- necessary to protect the population and prevail in enduring conflicts amongst the people.
The President's recent decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan helps bring into focus the complexity of the challenge to U.S. strategic objectives. A key initiative to address this challenge is the establishment of a 3-star NATO Training Mission for Afghanistan which will seek to improve Afghanistan security force training, leadership, and sustainability. Much of its expertise is derived from lessons and experience in Iraq where a key component of the U.S. efforts continues to be spear-headed by the work of Brigade Combat Teams operating as Advise and Assist Brigades. It is imperative that COIN, Stability Ops and SFA initiatives (to include policy, doctrine, training, and leader development) are coordinated fully with joint, interagency, and multinational partners. COIN Center has been providing COIN instruction to US civil-military training held at Camp Atterbury, Indiana to prepare PRT members for deployment to Afghanistan. We will continue to look for these kinds of opportunities to support the mission in Afghanistan and Iraq and are exploring additional areas where we can collaborate with our civilian interagency partners.
In accordance with our mandate to "help connect the dots" across multiple joint, interagency, intergovernmental, and multinational partners, the COIN Center and SO & SFA proponent offices are redoubling efforts to increase presence and activity on the COIN webpage [link here], COIN blog [link here], COIN Center Facebook fan page [link here] and Battle Command Knowledge System (for CAC holders) [link here]. A summary of additional ongoing initiatives is in the December 2009 Army Magazine article entitled: "COIN Center: Preparing the Force for Counterinsurgency, Stability Operations, and Security Force Assistance" (see here, reprinted with permission of ARMY Magazine, December 2009).
Thanks for your efforts in support of our troops,
Colonel Dan Roper