More on the offensive

Posted on June 20, 2007 | Comments Off on More on the offensive

Big Army offensives, as Robert Kaplan more or less said in his enlightening GWOT book "Imperial Grunts," are the antithesis of good counterinsurgency. So you have to wonder what’s up with "The Battle of Iraq – 2007", as Bill Roggio headlines his command-level updating post on it. Search and destroy was a big waste of time and lives in Vietnam. This one is billed as cleaning out "safe havens."

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0 responses to “More on the offensive”

  1. jdallen's avatar jdallen | June 20, 2007 at 8:54 pm |

    I too, doubt the efficacy of huge operations in a guerilla type of war. I know one thing they do is give your troops a sense of actually kicking some ass, instead of just hanging out, running some patrols, wasting a single bad guy here and there, meantime a few guys are catching sniper rounds and you are losing a few to booby traps (which, in this case, are IEDs).
    I reckon if that’s really all massive ops are good for, morale, that is, they are worth it. Barely.

  2. jdallen's avatar jdallen | June 20, 2007 at 8:54 pm |

    I too, doubt the efficacy of huge operations in a guerilla type of war. I know one thing they do is give your troops a sense of actually kicking some ass, instead of just hanging out, running some patrols, wasting a single bad guy here and there, meantime a few guys are catching sniper rounds and you are losing a few to booby traps (which, in this case, are IEDs).
    I reckon if that’s really all massive ops are good for, morale, that is, they are worth it. Barely.

  3. Unknown's avatar Dick Stanley | June 20, 2007 at 9:20 pm |

    Time will tell. We should know whether the results are lasting before summer’s over.

  4. Unknown's avatar Dick Stanley | June 20, 2007 at 9:20 pm |

    Time will tell. We should know whether the results are lasting before summer’s over.