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.