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

Counterfeit COIN ops?

Lt. Matthew Cancian, the Dave Goldich of active-duty Marines, has a good piece in the January issue of Marine Corps Gazette criticizing commanders who pretend to be carrying out a counterinsurgency campaign without really doing it: We go through the motions of counterinsurgency without focusing on what really matters. This leads to a focus on ...

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Lt. Matthew Cancian, the Dave Goldich of active-duty Marines, has a good piece in the January issue of Marine Corps Gazette criticizing commanders who pretend to be carrying out a counterinsurgency campaign without really doing it:

Lt. Matthew Cancian, the Dave Goldich of active-duty Marines, has a good piece in the January issue of Marine Corps Gazette criticizing commanders who pretend to be carrying out a counterinsurgency campaign without really doing it:

We go through the motions of counterinsurgency without focusing on what really matters. This leads to a focus on process metrics instead of outcome….We patrol in order to be able to report hours spent patrolling.

Tom again: Anytime you see someone focusing on their inputs (time and other resources expended) rather than their results, you should be suspicious. This is true in civilian life as well as in the military, I think.

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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