SWJ book review of “Special Forces Berlin: Clandestine Cold War Operations of the US Army’s Elite 1956-1990” by James Stejskal.
As Iraq appears to unravel, it is only right to continue the debate about counterinsurgency, the appropriate application of landpower, and the expanding role of Special Operations in the US military.
Today SOF are being asked to do more than ever before and with increasingly vague and hubristic-sounding missions and concepts. New paradigms are needed.
Rebuilding our special reconaissance capability.
Interoperability is a function of leadership, hardship, and time. To quickly achieve it, focus on individual personalities, understand that everyone has value, and exercise mission command.
Do the terrain and the friendly and enemy situations allow stability operations at the village or district level?
It is time to rethink the role of conventional U.S. military medical assets in COIN operations.
Implementing a provocative idea.
This type of massive COIN effort is only one extreme of a long continuum of policy options. If we want to keep COIN from becoming a 'dirty word,' we need to leave room for alternate, smaller footprint models.
