Bending the Third Rail
Because We Should, We Can, We Do
Monday, March 05, 2007
New Terra Strategy
William Arkin writes today about the latest buzz word around the Great War On Terra! Apparently calling it internation "counterinsurgency" is the de riguer term to be used. Arkin describes how Lt. Gen. William G. ("Jerry") Boykin describes this "new" effort:
The controversial Boykin, who is still the undersecretary of defense for intelligence and warfighting support and one of the top policymakers in the "war" against terrorism under Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, says approaching terrorism from the perspective of an insurgency allows the United States to apply what he calls the seven "elements of national power": diplomacy, military, economy, finance, law enforcement, information and intelligence.
Wait a minute .... I seem to have a vague memory of something. This seems to sounds slightly familiar. Oh. I know! This is the Clinton strategy for fighting terrorism!

No. That can't be.

Bush would never do anything Clinton.

Seriously, like North Korea it's as if we're coming full circle. The difference is that now we're looking at implementing a more rational policy after having so completely screwed things up as to make the success much more difficult.

Arkin goes on to discuss, properly so in my view, some of the weaknesses of the new/old approach. I consider it a move in the right direction albeit with some needed refinement (see Arkin).
Written at 9:34 AM by Greyhair.
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