Noah Feldman Faced with the collapse of Iraq into something like Lebanon – or worse, Somalia – the Bush administration opted for a new counterinsurgency strategy. Violence was reduced because, for the first time since the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, Iraqis felt that there was a force capable of dominating the situation and ensuring basic order. – Noah Feldman
Michael Mullen I think the central mission in Afghanistan right now is to protect the people, certainly, and that would be inclusive of everybody, and that in a, in an insurgency and a counterinsurgency, that’s really the center of gravity. – Michael Mullen
Meles Zenawi The most stupid mistake a counter-insurgency operation can make is alienating the population. If you alienate the population, you’re finished. – Meles Zenawi
John Abizaid You know as well as I do that counterinsurgency is a very nuanced type of military operation. – John Abizaid
John Abizaid But the key shift in focus will be from counter-insurgency operations to more and more cooperation with Iraqi security forces and to building Iraqi security capacity. – John Abizaid
Jake Auchincloss What began as a counterterrorism mission – to bring to justice the architects of 9/11 and deny terrorists a base of operations in Afghanistan – mutated under President George W. Bush into a counterinsurgency and a boondoggle. – Jake Auchincloss
H R McMaster Offensive operations and hunting down the enemy is an integral part of any counterinsurgency approach. – H R McMaster
Greg Grandin Defenders of Wilson are correct to beg for context when considering his legacy. But it is they who ignore the context: the role Wilson played in using war, including Haiti’s racist counterinsurgency, to nationalize white supremacy, militarism, and Christian evangelism. – Greg Grandin
Dexter Filkins The overriding goal of counterinsurgency is to make friends: You make friends with the people; you isolate the insurgents. – Dexter Filkins
David Petraeus The Germans have done wonderful work. Not long ago, a German battle group battalion conducted a very impressive counterinsurgency operation in a portion of Baghlan province. I think these are the first counterinsurgency operations conducted by any German element after World War II. And they did a very impressive job. – David Petraeus
David Petraeus Well, the oil, the oil spot, if you will, is a, is a term in counterinsurgency literature that connotes a peaceful area, secure area. So what you’re trying to do is to always extend that, to push that out. – David Petraeus
David Petraeus In counterinsurgency operations, the human terrain is the decisive terrain. – David Petraeus
