S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. In a 2006 Washington D.C. speech, Kilcullen stated that "insurgency, including terrorism," will be America's enemies' "weapon of choice" against the "unprecedented superiority" of U.S. military firepower (Kilcullen, 2006, p. 1). Citing Bill Murray's iconic film Groundhog Day, Kilcullen notes that until the U.S. masters a form of counterinsurgency that truly is effective, "we are going to live this day over, and over, and over again -- until we get it right."
Granted, Kilcullen offered his remarks nearly 5 years ago, but his context is fully up-to-date when one reviews the current lack of effectiveness of the United States' counterinsurgency strategy. For one thing, trying to institute "democratic processes" in Afghanistan without the "foundation of a robust civil society" tends to create "instability and perpetuate conflict," Kilcullen points out on page 3. Indeed, "control" in the counterinsurgency context does not mean "imposing order through unquestioned dominance" -- and moreover just killing the Taliban is certainly not the "sole objective," he continues. The "true aim" in this kind of warfare is to marginalize and "out-compete" the enemy, within the socio-political context of the battleground, according to Kilcullen.
So, the three pillars that Kilcullen uses to define his terms vis-a-vis counterinsurgency are: a) security (keeping the population safe from attack or intimidation by insurgents; military security, community policing; human security and building "a framework for human rights"; and public safety like fire, ambulance and sanitation services); b) political (focusing on mobilizing "stakeholders" to support their local and national government); and c) economic stability (this entails "humanitarian" and "development assistance" and the building of resources that can sustain families within the community) (p. 4). Kilcullen (p. 5) asserts that unless these three pillars are developed "in parallel, the campaign become unbalanced."
How is the U.S. doing with the counterinsurgency in Afghanistan?
According to Spencer Ackerman, it's not going well at all. In fact Ackerman calls his article "Counterproductive Counterinsurgency" because the methodology being employed "is not...
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