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Can we find diamonds in the rough if we compare old insurgencies to contemporary insurgencies?
Posted in these groups: 
COIN (Counterinsurgency)
COIN (Counterinsurgency)
Posted 9 y ago
Responses: 5
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I bet we could. The United States was born from an excellent insurgency.
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MAJ Ken Landgren
I don't remember that much from the Revolutionary war. I do remember our tactics were innovative at times, and the Brits were stupid enough to travel a dense forest with thousands of soldiers, canons, trains, and wives. The Brits had to accept defeat as the terrain was prohibitive of defending the column.
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CSM Carl Cunningham
I would say the network of spies that conducted human intelligence collection was one of the biggest portions of the insurgency. That and the guerilla tactics we used to fight the British.
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SSG Carlos Madden
CSM Carl Cunningham - I think this is a misconception. The American Army actually fought many pitched/semi-organized battles against the British; it wasn't an army running amongst the forest (exception at Battle Road). I don't think they employed guerrilla tactics against the British anymore than they against us, especially in the north and northwest. I'd even say that Washington learned how to use local indian fighters from the British during the French and Indian War.
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One of the differences between Mao's pattern and what we see today, is the "root." The insurgencies we are fighting today are all grassroots. They are not based on an outside idea (communism), but based on the concept that their culture is being oppressed. I believe that the latter is MUCH harder to counteract. In fact I chuckle at the shallow online COIN lessons I've been forced to take. There is much more to changing peoples minds than giving them infrastructure, security, and enhancing "host nation government legitimacy."
This is my enlisted opinion, and probably not worth the ink it wasn't written with. I don't really care, because I'm a soldier, not a policy maker, and I don't intend to change.
This is my enlisted opinion, and probably not worth the ink it wasn't written with. I don't really care, because I'm a soldier, not a policy maker, and I don't intend to change.
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MAJ Ken Landgren
You have a valid point about thinking about the ideology. Ideology fuels the fire. Men win the battles. Weapons and tactics is how they win.
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While the US Military was pretty much born in insurgency, it seems we have a hard time learning from our own history in regards to effectively countering it with others.
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MAJ Ken Landgren
Our metrics for winning, a stood up army, democracy, rebuilt nation are not complete if the insurgents continue to gain support after we leave.
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