Here's the second edition of Small Wars Journal's Saturday Night Quote (SWJ SNQ). Kudos to Red Rat and Ken White. On the Small Wars Council thread entitled The UK in Afghanistan (a thread that began in 2006) we give you Red Rat:
You can have the best COIN doctrine in the world and the most swept up culturally aware warriors that exist, able to rain down death and destruction in 3 local languages and say sorry afterwards. But if you cannot come up with a decent plan, implement it effectively and maintain your combat power while doing so you are still going to get egg on your face! It's all about the basics.
And then Ken:
My emphasis (It's all about the basics). Because that really sums it up. We are overly concerned with displaying (word of choice) our sophistication and erudition thus we have lost sight of that inviolable truth.