Summary
The driver of change is the attempt to achieve true military civilian integration, that is, a whole of government approach including the Department of State, USAID, USIP, and Interaction (representing the NGO community.) This requires development of a shared doctrine for stability operations and codifying that doctrine, so that field commanders and personnel can effectively imple- ment the doctrine in actual opera- tions. It involves recognition that both the military and civilian agencies have substantial experience in counter insurgency and stability operations since World War II, much of it successful; however, while individual officers learned neither the military nor civilian agencies as organizations, nor the U.S. government as an institution adequately absorbed the lessons.
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Extract
Iraq and the Lessons of Vietnam
HISTORICAL forces and international pressures make this an era of persistent conflict. The United States has a mixed record in dealing with these conflicts. We tend to win the invasion and botch the follow up. Two monumental disasters, Vietnam and Iraq /Afghanis tan, dominate the historical record. Our failure in those two arenas is a major driving force for change. In response to Vietnam, the U.S. Army did an excellent job of rebuilding itself to fight conventional wars, but seemed to think of Vietnam as a bad dream best ignored. The key civilian agencies, USAID and the De...
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