The Ghosts of Anbar
Posted by Lance on 27 Aug 2007 at 6:26 pm | Tagged as: Notes on the war, Military Matters, Lance's Page
I will be putting out a roundup of news, views and analysis of the campaign in Iraq later this evening, but with the heirs of Galula in charge I think starting with the first two parts of Michael Yon’s four part series on the application of counterinsurgency in Iraq,
“The Ghosts of Anbar,” should be a must read. Part one: The Paradox of Counterinsurgency, takes us back to previous campaigns of the British in Anbar and part two: Through the Window, Clearly, takes us into the minds of the commanders and into the field with the troops to see the challenges in this rapidly changing part of Iraq.
In it he discusses COL Simcock, so I think here would be an appropriate place to send you to this discussion (pdf.) he had at a bloggers roundtable:
Q Yeah, if I could just follow up on one quick thing here. If you were, say, commandant for the day or CINC for the day, what one or two capabilities that you may not have or need more of would top your list?
COL. SIMCOCK: That’s an easy question. And the commandant was just out here a couple weeks ago and I told him exactly what I wish I had more of. Engineers and route clearance. Those are the two capabilities. It’s a lowdensity, high-demand type capability that we just — we need more of out here. The engineers, they’re working 24/7, literally. They’re either building something or tearing something down, and that’s something that I wish I had more of. They do a great job for us, but I’m just — I just don’t have enough of them.
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