Thomas Ricks on Counterinsurgency

Local NPR affiliate, WNED, today replayed a talk given by Thomas Ricks, on the successes and failures of the surge in Iraq that began two years ago. The most interesting of his remarks were on the effects of the new counterinsurgency strategies being used, and how and where these are now succeding,

He indicated that there are three crucial lessons from this. First, controlling and ultimately ending the insurgency will ultimately be accomplished by the Iraqis with help from the Americans and others. Second, this will not be accomplished by military means alone, but instead by a judicious use of military force, financial incentives and most important by a rebuilding of the social fabric of Iraq over an extended period of time. And finally, and perhaps most important, this will involve direct engagement and negotiation with insurgents.

And America's role in this will be, and can only be one of support.

As I noted in an earlier post, this is also true in Afghanistan, as the Prime Minister noted last week. This does not mean the insurgency cannot be ended, it only means that we cannot defeat it militarily.