Notes of a Counterinsurgent and Mexico

For those reading this blog, I’ve decided to post portions of a reader I completed a few years ago addressing the issue of insurgency and counterinsurgency in a piece call “Notes of a Counterinsurgent”.  Most of the information is applicable to counter-gang, counterintelligence, and other forms of low-intensity conflict…conflicts involves stealth, infiltration, subversion- shadow-wars.  Note that the postings from this piece are from a generalist perspective, meaning one needs to determine if the observation applies to the situation at hand, or if the situation is altogether different.  The piece is intended to provide readers a broad fundamental understanding regarding the nature of what I still call Low-Intensity Conflict (LIC), despite all the myriad acronyms that have replaced it today- Irregular Warfare (IW) or Asymmetric Warfare (AW) being two of them. The Wiki definition of LIC suffices for the purposes pertaining to the issues discussed.  Despite my preference for the use of LIC.  LIC is anything but low-intensity.  LIC is low-intensity from the perspective of large ground forces, formations and movements.  LIC, however, is much more violent and personal.

ALL conflicts are different.  There’s no panacea to mitigation and/or disruption, but there are what appears to be some general principles.  That said, use the following-on postings with a title reference of “Notes of a Counterinsurgent” as an observation for reflection/consideration.

I wrote the piece in 2009, but took it off publication because an entity wanted to use it for their training curriculum.  However, I did not want to make certain suggested changes to the piece because I felt it would water-down the meaning of what I’m trying to convey.

That said, Notes of a Counterinsurgent addresses the following-

This book will be of utility to those dealing with the following issues: -Infiltration -Subversion -Gangs -Organized Crime -Insurgency -Counterinsurgency -Psychological Warfare -Indirect Approaches, what many today call ‘asymmetric warfare’

Here is a modified introduction…note that some of the references, such as al Qaida in Iraq, may be somewhat dated- but very relevant to this discussion.

Introduction

This piece is an amalgam of mentorship, self-study and observation. My primary mentors are my family and faith. My parents taught me to work and study hard. It was the nuns of my Catholic faith who first taught me to recognize and understand the significance and essence of soft approaches, as well as the exploitable gaps of the human spirit and mind- I never realized how applicable those insights would be years later. However, I owe everything to my wife for allowing me to travel the world apart from her, study and meet new people, which led me to the concepts laid before you.

I learned soft approaches in the form of deception, infiltration and subversion- through the likes of “The Angel of Light”, and the “Serpent in the Garden of Eden”, while growing up in Catholic school. Mankind was damned to eternal suffering after being deceived to eat forbidden fruit by Satan.

Insurgents use the same modus operandi as Satan. Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) is a modern day example of the devil as Iraqis were deceived into biting the forbidden fruit of extremist insurgency, criminality and terrorism only for the al Qaeda Devil to come back to steal their souls by killing their families and destroying their way of life. Mexico is dealing with her Devil today in the form of drug cartels that offer money/riches in exchange for family, life and freedom. Hezbollah of Lebanon purchased Lebanese souls under the guise of humanitarian organizations to wage war with Israel in 2006 by hiding within the civilian populace as Israel conducted bombing raids to protect itself from terrorist attacks; as did Hamas in the Palestinian territories (2008/2009) by threatening death against other Palestinians if they did not actively support their violent terrorist actions against Israel.

Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, Napoleon and Osama bin Laden were/are charismatic leaders/influencers of the mind and soul. They brought the world to major wars, death and destruction- they were/are all social vampires.

The observations in these pieces ARE NOT NEW; they’ve been with us since the days of Sun Tzu, thousands of years ago. However, we often do not train our military personnel to think and operate well in these environments. Many of us learn this kind of thinking through the “school of hard knocks” and/or personal study/reflection.

The modernized insights conveyed in this book were gained during the conduct, planning and study of various military operations over the last 20 years. And although this book has the word counterinsurgency as part of its title, do not be fooled. The methods the reader will find this book remains valid in almost every environment where governmental and social instability exists such as your Haiti, Liberia, Algeria, Balkans, Asia, Latin America or the Middle East. The same environments our military tactical leaders from private to captain will be fighting.

Deception, infiltration, positioning and subversion enable enemies of the U.S. to exploit society and achieve strategic surprise e.g. 9/11, Tanzania bombings, conduct assassinations e.g. Yitzchak Rabin or Benazir Bhutto. Modern man believes it is the physical act that kills or destroys man- this is false. The act of killing, destroying or subverting begins by deception and infiltration – in all begins in the mind. Once properly positioned, and the conditions are right, the physical act of termination is simply the final stage.

If one fails to look for the subtleties of deception and infiltration, one will be caught surprised like buried termites of an untreated house as things look great on the surface, yet rotted from the inside, made weak and led to implosion. This book will help teach you want to look for, where to concentrate your resources, and where to begin targeting the threat.

I also want to thank my mentor, Marine Corps Colonel Gary I. Wilson, who introduced me to the controversial concept of 4th Generation Warfare and the concepts of the late Colonel John Boyd of OODA Loop fame [his concepts also influences my thinking to this day]. The name 4th Generation Warfare remains an issue of contention but the modus operandi of the enemy and the inability of nation states to effectively disrupt such threats are clear. Colonel Wilson’s influence and guidance created an energy that drives me to this day.