Free Republic

IN recent days, the Pentagon has made two major changes in its strategy to defeat the Taliban, Al Qaeda and their affiliates in Afghanistan and Pakistan. First came the announcement that Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal would take over as the top United States commander in Afghanistan. Next, Pentagon officials said that the United States was giving Pakistan more information on its drone attacks on terrorist targets, while news reports indicated that Pakistani officers would have significant future control over drone routes, targets and decisions to fire weapons (though the military has denied that). While we agree with Secretary of...

Three months from now the first signs of state collapse in Pakistan will become evident. That is the doomsday scenario sketched by a consultant to no less than President Obama. The consultant David Kilcullen has warned that if collapse happens --"It will dwarf anything we've seen so far. Pakistan has a military intelligence establishment that refuses to follow the civilian leadership. Pakistan has 100 nuclear weapons, an army bigger than America's and the headquarters of al-Qaeda sitting in two-thirds of the country which the Government does not control.” And doomsday appears to be on course. President Zardari has signed the...

Why is an Aussie anthropologist coaching American generals on how to win wars? David Kilcullen, an Australian army reservist and top adviser to Gen. David H. Petraeus during the troop surge in Iraq, has spent years studying insurgencies in countries from Indonesia to Afghanistan, distinguishing hard-core terrorists from "accidental guerrillas" -- and his theories are revolutionizing military thinking throughout the West. Kilcullen spoke with Outlook's Carlos Lozada on why Pakistan is poised for collapse, whether catching Osama bin Laden is really a good idea and how the Enlightenment and Lawrence of Arabia helped Washington shift course in Iraq. Excerpts: What...

Kilcullen: "I think we have found over the last three or four years of evolution of the conflict in Iraq that the more we focus on the population and protecting them, the easier it is to deal with the enemy. The more we focus on the enemy, the harder it is to actually get anything done with the population. " "WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO EXPAND ON THAT? BECAUSE YOU'RE FROWNING."

David Kilcullen, who was the chief counterinsurgency adviser to General David Petraeus, has posted another item over at the Small Wars Journal. Kilcullen always makes for interesting reading, and he doesn't disappoint with this latest. Kilcullen offers some deep insight into al Qaeda's current troubles in Anbar--specifically, why it is that the terrorist groups Iraqi affiliate, AQI, failed to cement its relationship with the tribal sheiks in that region. The answer is surprisingly simple--AQI failed to abide by Rule #1: Bros before Hoes: Islam, of course, is a key identity marker when dealing with non-Muslim outsiders, but when all involved...