The Global Counterinsurgency

ILLUSTRATED: A pragmatic way to define the struggle against radical Islamic terrorsim. Hint: it's more about political media relations than it is about the art of war.
OK, this blog is all about making the complicated simple; for soundbites and bumperstickers. Counterinsurgency does have 6 syllables, a bit much, but it is the best way to define the war. "War on Terror" is a misnomer, a war that by definition cannot be won. Terror is an emotion, terrorism is a tactic, neither a people, a place, nor a thing.
In the 12/18/06 edition of The New Yorker (no link unfortunately), George Packer quoted an Autralian soldier/anthropologist named David Kilcullen as calling this a "global counterinsurgency".

The article's main talking points are:
-Unlike Malaya or Northern Ireland, this is struggle global
-Al Queda and Hezbolla leaders are masters at political strategy and media narratives. Needless to say the Bush Administration is not
-Insurgencies grow through social networks and associations. The counter-strategy must do the same.
-The implication (and this would be a great issue for a Democratic Candidate in 2008) is that: (1) More anthropologists must be used by State and DoD. (2) Nationbuilding and counterinsurgency must be institutionalized with special units in the military and State. (3) Media strategy and a survey course on anthropology ought to become part professional military education.

A primer on running for office

ILLUSTRATED: The 5 goals for the senior management in any campaign.
If you are running for office in the next year or two, you are probably forming an inner circle to run your campaign. This link provides the goals to constantly stay focused on as your enterprise progresses and grows. It is named the 10 Commandments for running in Utah, but ignore the first five, focus on 6-10. (The link sometimes doesn't work). Here are the pointers:

- A clear, concise, contrasting, credible message; consistently given by everyone from the candidate down to the precinct walkers.
- Raise the money, early and often.
- Define yourself. If attacked, respond, then move on. Stay on message.
- Know the voter statistics by precinct and then canvass. Categorize voters into favorable, persuadable, and unfavorable.
- In the final weeks persuade the persuadables. In the final days turn out the favorables.

P.S. : My personal "Seven Phases of a Campaign". At seven different phases, each of these becomes the campaign's most important function: 1) setting your theme and strategy, 2) building an internal management team, 3) setting a master calendar, 4) fundraising, 5) budget control, 6) research/mass communication, 7) grassroots organizing.