Word: nagle
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...before he leaves office, and both presidential candidates have pledged at least an additional two brigades. But any troops are unlikely to arrive fast enough or in sufficient numbers. Afghanistan is a third larger than Iraq in size, and its terrain is a lot more difficult. Counterinsurgency expert John Nagl has estimated that there should be 600,000 troops--including Afghan ones--inside the country to quell the Taliban and al-Qaeda threat. Currently there are only about 65,000 coalition forces (including 33,000 U.S. troops) on the ground, in addition to some 70,000 Afghan army personnel...
...Nagl noted that, traditionally, commanders want as many troops as they can get, and that General Petraeus would be expected to "slow-roll the withdrawal" if he were to remain in charge of Iraq only. "But given that he knows that he is going to assume responsibility for Afghanistan as well, it indicates the gains in Iraq really are fragile and this is probably a prudent decision." But Nagl, now with the Center for a New American Security in Washington, is still puzzled by the decision. "I would not say we are winning the war in Afghanistan...
...countries - and given the limited number of troops available, he knows that any reinforcements sent to Afghanistan would mean pulling troops out of Iraq. Petraeus evidently "doesn't think it's worth taking any more risks in Iraq to be able to shift more force to Afghanistan," said John Nagl, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and former Petraeus adviser. A resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan has led both presidential candidates to call for sending more U.S. troops there...
...This war in Iraq is not over yet," Nagl said. "There's been a little bit of a dance-in-the-end-zone phenomenon that concerns me." Nagl, who returned from Iraq last month, says there is "still a running gun battle with al-Qaeda in Iraq" in the northern part of the country around Mosul. U.S. troops there are "still in the 'clear' phase of 'clear, hold, build' counterinsurgency strategy," said Nagl, a West Point graduate and author of Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam who recently helped Petraeus rewrite the Army/Marine...
...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...