From DoD Buzz:
Counterinsurgency adviser David Kilcullen spoke last night at my alma mater, Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where he also teaches (lucky students). Mostly, he addressed irregular warfare and how he sees it as the dominant form of war in the foreseeable future and that we’d be wise to prepare accordingly.
I wanted to highlight some of the points he made in remarks the other day to a British newspaper to clarify his position on Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s troop request, and why a large troop surge is needed. First off, he said the Taliban are much better fighters than the insurgents in Iraq. “The Taliban love to fight,” he said, and their operational skills have improved significantly over the past three years as they’ve learned and adapted to U.S. and NATO tactics.
My Comment: Logistics will make it almost next to impossible to dump 30,000+ troops in a short period of time into Afghanistan. But Kilcullen knows what it takes to change the dynamics in the Afghan war, and is proposing it anyway. But unfortunately for him (and us), I doubt that anyone in the White House is listening to him.
We will probably know in the next few weeks what is the new White House strategy for Afghanistan .... but my gut is telling me to not hold my breath.