Insurgencies and counterinsurgencies are complex subsets of warfare. Insurgency and its tactics are as old warfare itself, nothing new about this asymmetrical brand of warfare. Political power is the central issue in insurgencies and counterinsurgencies, each side attempts to gain political authority, and when the people see this political authority as legitimate, that side has won half the battle.

Insurgency is defined as an organized movement aimed at the overthrow of a constituted government through the use of subversion and armed conflict.

Counterinsurgency is defined as military, paramilitary, or other political authority, psychological, economic and civic actions taken by a government to defeat an insurgency.

Counterinsurgents should prepare for a long and protracted battle, months, years, even decades. Significant time and resources are often necessary to defeat an insurgency, to include a full commitment from host nation governments and the local populace. Without full support from the people and a determination to hold out, counterinsurgencies are often doomed to fail.

Insurgent asymmetrical warfare is completely different from conventional warfare, particularly when considering time frames and lengths of campaigns. Most people measure successes of counterinsurgencies in terms of conventional warfare time frames, this is ignorant as the strategist and student of history will understand that counterinsurgencies cannot be measured in conventional terms.

Some of the strategies to success in fighting an insurgency:

Using the appropriate level of force
Sometimes doing nothing is the best reaction in order to mitigate unnecessary dangers to the local populace
Intelligence
Gaining relationships with the local populace
Host nation government support
Host nation Army/Police force

The host nation doing something tolerably is better than us doing it well.
We’ve got to know when to step back and allow for host nation forces to learn and grow in anticipation for their eventual autonomous peacekeeping.
This was most recently employed in the control of Basra and the Iraqi forces battle with the Mahdi Army.


I’ve merely touched on a few things that I’ve read, more to follow, please contribute.

That's all good stuff there but we still need to be there for support, backup, coaching, teaching, training and other things. Obviously, they need to do more and more of their own crap but this still should not mean they are 100% on their own. At least not yet IMHO.

Originally Posted by AikiRooster

That's all good stuff there but we still need to be there for support, backup, coaching, teaching, training and other things. Obviously, they need to do more and more of their own crap but this still should not mean they are 100% on their own. At least not yet IMHO.

agreed

unfortunately, the Iraqi forces are quite uncapable despite recent achievements.

Also, if you can't win a war in 5 weeks, you're going to lose. That's how it seems now.

Negative...

That's how it seems now.
Takes more than 5 weeks and the public cries that it's a disaster.
Then things just keep getting harder and harder.

Well, thats true.

Originally Posted by the_13th_redneck

That's how it seems now.
Takes more than 5 weeks and the public cries that it's a disaster.
Then things just keep getting harder and harder.

In the counterinsurgency manual it states that the general populous is sometimes ignorant in that they measure counterinsurgency success in terms of conventional warfare success.

The average civilian is an uninformed media puppet, they require spoon feeding in order to grasp what is success.

Originally Posted by Ski8799

In the counterinsurgency manual it states that the general populous is sometimes ignorant in that they measure counterinsurgency success in terms of conventional warfare success.

The average civilian is an uninformed media puppet, they require spoon feeding in order to grasp what is success.

From what I've noticed, the general populace seems to be quite content being ignorant to this information. It's easier to watch the news and complain than to hunt out the facts for yourself and understand the reality.

Originally Posted by NCdt Steliga

From what I've noticed, the general populace seems to be quite content being ignorant to this information. It's easier to watch the news and complain than to hunt out the facts for yourself and understand the reality.

So true, I noticed that you have a bad company avatar, play on the PS3? I'm completely addicted, I play by my screen name; ski8799