Thursday, February 18, 2010

Disputing the "Hearts and Minds" Strategy

We had a nice discussion of the current operations in Afghanistan on The Conservative Wahoo Live! radio program last night, with several listeners very much espousing the "win their hearts and minds" strategy that has become part of the background noise in Washington's current fascination with counterinsurgency theory (COIN). Here is a rational, well-argued criticism of modern COIN from today's New York Times.

I was a student at the Joint Forces Staff College in the Summer of 2006, about the time the COIN cabal began their ascendancy. After a day-long symposium on the subject in which no fewer than five separate speakers parroted the "hearts and minds" line, I stood up in the Blue Bedroom (the main auditorium, so named because of its color and the propensity of the lighting/atmosphere to put students to sleep) and asked the unlucky lecturer a simple question:

"Has an insurgency ever been broken through a policy of fear, terror and murder?"

His answer was a very quick "yes", and as if to prove his credentials as a COIN expert, he named a half dozen or so. I then asked, "How come we don't study those?"

He was aghast. His answer was basically, "Because that kind of fighting is inconsistent with American values and ideals."

I then went on. "But we firebombed Japanese and German cities night after night, killing tens of thousands of civilians at time. We dropped two atomic weapons on an opponent who was obviously losing the war. Is it a question of from how far away the fear, and terror and murder is delivered? Is that the prime determinant of whether something is "consistent" with our values?"

My point is this: winning the hearts and minds of a population is a proven strategy for breaking an insurgency--because it has been proven to work. But it hasn't always worked. Shouldn't our forces then also at least discuss other methods of breaking insurgencies? Or is it the discussion of such distasteful methods that is actually inconsistent with our values and ideals, rather than the conduct?

I'm all in favor of the "hearts and minds" approach being the default, textbook US method of addressing COIN. I'm not in favor of ignoring history.

6 comments:

  1. "Get 'em by the balls their hearts and minds will soon follow."
    Chuck Colson.

    "...whether it be better to be loved than feared or feared than loved? It may be answered that one should wish to be both, but, because it is difficult to unite them in one person, is much safer to be feared than loved...".
    The Prince
    by Nicolo Machiavelli
    CHAPTER XVII

    "I don't like your cuffs, I don't like your cuffs, I don't like your cuffs ". Bearnaise to Count de Money in History of the World Part 1

    'nuff said.

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  2. Sherman's March to the Sea comes to mind.

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  3. Bill Sherman, now HE knew how to win a war, curse his black soul.

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  4. "Hearts and Minds" Strategy....as we like to say here in the AOR:

    We are taking the FUN out of FUNDAMENTALISM.

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  5. A great article about this in the 18 Feb NYT (buried on page 27):
    "Empty Skies Over Afghanistan"

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  6. This post has been linked for the HOT5 Daily 2/19/2010, at The Unreligious Right

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