We're Fighters, Not Lovers

Forget about the losses,
you exaggerate the wins
--The Road, Jackson Browne

Well I can roar like a lion,
I can sting like a bee.
But some times I think, baby,
I've got rabbit blood in me
--I'm a Lover Not a Fighter, The Kinks
_____________

Ranger Question of the Day:
If our military personnel are now all warriors,
does that make the President the Warrior in Chief?
______________

The U.S. portrays its military personnel as warriors, yet its official policy is that it is involved in COIN operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

COIN, portrayed as the key element in our phony elective wars, is not based on combat power. Yet national leadership and policy insists our service personnel be designated warriors. We say one thing, and expect to do another. Surely the warrior ethos will not resolves COIN concerns.

Iraq and Afghanistan clearly cannot be solved through the avenue of power, yet all services have signed on the designation "warrior." Even the vaunted Army COIN strategy is based in the concept of advisers, implying a symbiotic relationship between occupiers and indigenous. But where are these midwifing sorts? That's right -- they are now combat arms warriors.

COIN is simplicity itself. It is their country and they do not want us there. That is simple. What is complicated is that U.S. policy tries to circumvent this fact.

Current U.S. policy is like going out to a ball game where the rules are unknown, and when they become known, change. Also, the location of the ball park is a secret, as is the ticket price. The ability to score or the way to score is also a secret known only to the referees. And of course, the refs are deaf and blind.

This is a working definition of the U.S. Warrior COIN Policy.