This is from a friend of mine who's in USAID's Office of Military Affairs in Afghanistan:
Quote:
I am still in Afghanistan. Last week I was in Kabul at an ISAF PRT conference. MG Van Loon spoke about this operation--and made statement quoted below.
In counter-insurgency (COIN) ops, depending on the situation in an area, sometimes you need to use military power to "clear" an area before you can start developing it. Why? Because the insurgents don't want to see a govt. presence or peoples' lives improve as it will weaken their own support. In other areas, we can identify the causes of instability and diminish them before the insurgents gain a foothold. There are numerous stages of COIN and you need different activities depending on the stage. If you are interested, have a look at FM 3-24, COIN operations.
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I checked it out. Very interesting stuff:
Counterinsurgency Handbook
"What truth endures beneath the flaming stream?"
--
A Volcano, Bartolome de Las Casas,
Inferno de Marsaya, 1536