Word: colonel
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...flood a neighborhood with troops who walk the streets 24/7, who create a presence that deters mayhem, who eventually begin to build trust relationships with the locals and who, finally, make it possible to provide basic services like water, sanitation, education and electricity. According to Lieut. Colonel John Nagl, author of a recent book on counterinsurgency warfare called Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife, "The tipping point comes when the residents trust you enough to tell you where the bad guys are rather than telling the bad guys where you are." coin, then, requires two things that armies...
...sorts, disdained by real warriors. But the desire for large set-piece battles-like the invasion of Iraq-has proved a diversion from the actual struggle against Islamist terrorism, which requires high-powered police work, with special forces taking the lead. Similarly, "counterinsurgency is essentially special-forces work," says Colonel Edward Short, director of the Army's coin Center for Excellence in Iraq. "It should be considered an elite operation, requiring special skills. As we draw down our troop levels, the only show in town is going to be advisers. We should be stripping out the very best officers...
...Romanov imperial dynasty, after which, naturally, the Russian Orthodox Church canonizes Lenin as "the guardian of the poor and the weak." Reality is also given an alternate course in Kurkov's 2000 satire of the modern-day Ukrainian Security Service, The Kind Angel of Death, in which a colonel complains that a lack of funding is forcing the former kgb to "use the passive help of our citizens ... Unfortunately, none of these assistants of ours ever managed to assist us without our help." Kurkov captures such absurdities of post-Soviet existence with characteristic black humor. Born in St. Petersburg, Kurkov...
...boulder. In the sweltering rain forest, the cut had quickly become infected, causing his leg to redden and swell and sending his temperature soaring to 105°F. At the same time, the expedition had reached a set of seemingly impassable rapids. Roosevelt's Brazilian co-commander, Colonel Cāndido Rondon, had announced that they would have to abandon their canoes and strike out into the jungle--every man for himself. "To all of us," one of them wrote, "his report was practically a sentence of death." For Roosevelt, who could barely sit up, much less fight his way through...
Also hidden in the rain forest was a group of indigenous tribesmen later known as the Cinta Larga, or Wide Belts. Sophisticated hunters and fierce warriors, they shadowed Roosevelt and his men yet never allowed themselves to be seen. They attacked Colonel Rondon when he was hunting alone and killed his dog. Rondon, who had spent nearly half his life exploring the Amazon and making contact with its most isolated tribes, responded to the attack by leaving the Indians gifts, signs of friendship and respect. As commander of his own regiment, he had ordered his troops when dealing with indigenous...