Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Company Command’s greatest hits, Vol. 4: Hey, living with the people is effective!

    There are some skeptics of counterinsurgency reading this blog. You lurkers know who you are — I was talking to one at the UC Berkeley Faculty Club just last night. I wish you all would take on the experiences of guys who have been out there and done it, like this comment from ...

cc.army.mil
cc.army.mil
cc.army.mil

 

 

There are some skeptics of counterinsurgency reading this blog. You lurkers know who you are — I was talking to one at the UC Berkeley Faculty Club just last night. I wish you all would take on the experiences of guys who have been out there and done it, like this comment from Company Command in 2007. (Italics are mine):

The very first thing we did was ensure that we lived with the people and that we lived in the enemy’s backyard. I didn’t fully realize its importance until I had done it for awhile. You read about it in counterinsurgency theory, but it doesn’t really click in your mind until you actually do it. We established three firebases in my battlespace that are literally on the side of the road…In a lot of ways, it endeared the population to us. -Josh Taylor, B/1-73 CAV

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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