The Book on Bad Apples
A new Army manual shows the smart way to beat insurgents
"Recipe for failure." A lengthy chapter on intelligence lays out methods for assessing a conflict, including social network analysis and other tools. A chapter on "unity of effort" addresses the importance of civilian roles in reconstruction and governance. Other chapters describe how to execute counterinsurgency operations, to build or improve a country's security forces, and to enforce leadership and ethics. A section on detention and interrogation warns that "distinguishing an insurgent from a civilian is difficult and often impossible. Treating the second like the first, however, is a sure recipe for failure."
The manual is replete with specific advice. Appendix A, "A Guide for Action," says: "Only attack insurgents when they get in the way. Try not to be distracted or forced into a series of reactive moves by a desire to kill or capture them. Provoking combat usually plays into the enemy's hands by undermining the population's confidence. Instead, attack the enemy's strategy." Elsewhere, soldiers are cautioned against befriending children but advised to reach out to women through cultural intermediaries.
Nagl will have a chance to put the manual he helped write to the test. Having served one tour in Iraq, he will take command of the 1-34 Armor Battalion at Fort Riley in Kansas later this year. There his unit will organize and train the U.S. advisers who are embedded with the fledgling Iraqi security forces, on which all hope of a U.S. drawdown is pinned. Nagl sees this as a career calling. "If you believe that this kind of war is not going to go away, we have to increase our ability at the lower end of the spectrum. We are making great strides, but there is more we can do."
With Linda Robinson
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