Petraeus' COIN Guidance 'Prematurely Released'

Soon after the new Afghan counterinsurgency guidance issued by U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus went up on two Internet sites, it was pulled off again. But it is not expected to change drastically when it is rereleased publicly. "I don't think it's going to change," said Col. Daniel Roper, director of the Army and Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Center, in a July 30 interview.

Earlier this week, the Counterinsurgency Center and the publication Small Wars Journal posted the guidance, dated July 27, on their Web sites. Soon after it was posted, Small Wars Journal took it down and replaced it with this note, "The [Commander, International Security Assistance Force] Counterinsurgency Guidance was prematurely released. It has been requested that the COIN Center remove the Guidance and the associated post from their web site. Small Wars Journal has decided to do the same."

The training community was excited about the document and it went up too quickly, said Roper. It may have been taken down so that it can be explained to the right people before being made available to everyone, he said. "I think it's just a process of socialization and explaining it to different interested parties that are not people that normally look in soldiers' manuals for tasks, conditions and standards," Roper said...

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