March 17, 2009

John Nagl and Rachel Maddow: Together At Last

Rachel Maddow says we would not have invaded Iraq if "the counterinsurgents" had been in charge. (We would have invaded Malaya, naturally.) Again, this may actually be true, but first off, let's not go making the mistake of confusing operational doctrine with strategy. In the same vein, at the beginning of this interview, John is talking 100% operations and what we need to do differently on the ground. He doesn't ask if a) this is worth it or b) there exist alternatives to population-centric counterinsurgency. And out of no where, Rachel Maddow -- Rachel bleeping Maddow! -- calls my boss to task and asks him if being a strategic thinker means more than tweaking our operational design. Damn! When pressed, to be fair, John gives his fellow Rhodes Scholar a pretty good answer about the costs of failure in Afghanistan. But who would have thought that lefty smart-ass on MSNBC would be the one asking the key questions? (Rumor has it that Afghanistan is actually one of Maddow's pet subjects. Good on her, I say.)