Rise of the neo-coins

Chiron · Post by **Chiron** » April 10th, 2008, 2:20 am

Last week, in an op-ed in the New York Times, Lt Colonel John Nagel argued that the US needs a military advisory corps, a standing capacity to help build, train and fight with foreign military forces, such as in Iraq.
Nagel is a "neo-coin", one of a group of soldier-academics who, in the wake of General Petraeus' arrival in Iraq, has risen to prominence in the US national security debate. "Coin" stands for counter-insurgency.

The neo-coins propose a new strategic approach to the "war on terror" drawn from the counter-insurgency experiences of the 1960s. The war, they argue, is best understood as a global Islamist insurgency, initiated by a diffuse grouping of movements that seek to re-make Islam's role in the world. They use terrorism as their primary, but not their sole tactic.

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Ranger Bill · Post by **Ranger Bill** » April 10th, 2008, 6:29 am

Intersting article and even more interesting are the comments posted about it. But as for a "an avisory corps of forces to train and fight with foreign military forces" and focus on counter-insurgency, I always thought that was a prime role of Special Forces.

Jim · Post by **Jim** » April 10th, 2008, 6:40 am

Ranger Bill wrote:Intersting article and even more interesting are the comments posted about it. But as for a "an avisory corps of forces to train and fight with foreign military forces" and focus on counter-insurgency, I always thought that was a prime role of Special Forces.

Well, it is supposed to be the purpose of SF. Sadly, mission creep has drained them dry.

rgrpuck · Post by **rgrpuck** » April 10th, 2008, 7:04 am

Jim wrote:
Ranger Bill wrote:Intersting article and even more interesting are the comments posted about it. But as for a "an avisory corps of forces to train and fight with foreign military forces" and focus on counter-insurgency, I always thought that was a prime role of Special Forces.
Well, it is supposed to be the purpose of SF. Sadly, mission creep has drained them dry.

I wouldnt call it mission Creep more like it FID isnt the "cool" mission.

KW Driver · Post by **KW Driver** » April 10th, 2008, 8:56 am

and there just aren't enough teams to go out and do the FID that needs doing here, just here in Iraq.

every single unit should be doing it and thinking COIN and how to work it to our advantage when they go out.

and some units, at Company level are doing it and getting good results. some Battalions and companies don't have a fucking clue.

some BNs and CO's think it's acceptable to sit on a FOB, and maybe go do a leader engament before they leave and RIP out so they have good slides. I've watched units drive all over a small village for an hour just trying to get to the Muqtar's house, so they can get "atmospherics" for the RIP slides. locals running them all over the place, "he lives over there I think", "no, he live on that side of town." first time in 9 months they've been it the town.

it's all driven by the commander. Bn or CO CDR drives how effective the tour's going to be. sometimes a PL/PSG can make it happen too, if they have some of their own space to work.

archangel · Post by **archangel** » April 11th, 2008, 11:48 am

Id like to echo what Ranger KW said. I just came from a BDE MiTT. I got a good look and understanding of the big picture and we found that the Bn and Co that strongly focused on COIN were VERY successful in their sector. Both in reducing violence, stablizing the community, and building a strong relationship with both out Iraqi counterparts and the civilian population.

Lefty · Post by **Lefty** » April 12th, 2008, 3:23 pm

Not to detract from this thread, as these are valid observations, but a little clarification of the traditional SF mission. The original mission of SF was to advise and train insurgent and guerrilla elements in countries occupied by hostile forces. The roots of SF were in the three man OSS teams created during WWII to work with the French Maquis and similar partisan groups behind enemy lines. (One of the more notorious teams was the Deer mission which, ironically, worked with Ho Chi Minh against the Japanese in Indochina)
In the post-WWII era this was expanded into the original SF units which had hopes of working with partisan groups in the Soviet bloc in the event of WWIII. Incidently, this gave rise to many unsubstantiated stories of small "rehearsal" ops run in eastern Europe or teams being inserted during crises such as the Berlin Wall.
With the creation of the US supported Republic of SVN and the ensuing guerrilla war, SF was called on to provide COIN assistance, the prevailing wisdom being "who better to fight guerillas than our own troops trained to BE guerrillas"
This morphed into the additional groups (3rd, 6th, 7th) who were assigned other parts of the world, such as South America and Africa. There were a lot of MTTs run world wide at this time. SF was allegedly involved with the Bolivians who caught Che Guevara.
SF has actually been turned on its head from it's original mission of the Cold War era.
Should a conventional general war ever erupt again, SF will be tasked again with working behind enemy lines to support partisan groups.
Of course, I am years removed from my days in SF, but I know the original mission bore little resemblance to today's ops.