Following up on the discussion about taking a love-compassion-awareness approach to politics in general, here's a post about taking, let's call it, an "awareness approach" to fighting an insurgency.
Nathaniel Fick, a former Marine captain, provides perspective today of why a new approach to fighting is key, and how the kill-them-all strategy can't keep us safe.
In a Washington Post column, Fick talks about his experience teaching counterinsurgency tactics in Afghanistan. One of his key points is that fighting less, leads to winning more. Fick writes that he asked his students to list their top three targets in a Taliban stronghold.
When I asked a U.S. officer to share his list, he rattled off the names of three senior Taliban leaders to be captured or killed. Then I turned and asked an Afghan officer the same question. "First we must target the local councils to see how we can best help them," he replied. "Then we must target the local mullahs to find out their needs and let them know we respect their authority." Exactly. In counterinsurgency warfare, targeting is more about whom you bring in than whom you take out.
It's a column well worth reading.
