Comments on: AMERICAN COUNTERINSURGENCY, by Roberto J. González (U. Chicago Press, 2009) http://zeroanthropology.net/2009/01/29/american-counterinsurgency-by-roberto-j-gonzalez-u-chicago-press-2009/ Turning and turning in the widening gyre | The falcon cannot hear the falconer | Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold | Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world | The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere | The ceremony of innocence is drowned | The best lack all conviction, while the worst | Are full of passionate intensity. -- W.B. Yeats, The Second Coming Sat, 03 Sep 2011 17:31:50 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Chris http://zeroanthropology.net/2009/01/29/american-counterinsurgency-by-roberto-j-gonzalez-u-chicago-press-2009/#comment-3390 Sat, 31 Jan 2009 18:56:32 +0000 http://openanthropology.wordpress.com/?p=4224#comment-3390 I’m looking forward to reading Gonzalez’s work, but I do take exception with part of the publisher’s description, which reads “Some claim that counterinsurgency is so sophisticated and effective that it is the “graduate level of war.”” This claim is not based on perception of effectiveness of counterinsurgency, but the difficulty of counterinsurgency. Not only must those fighting insurgents fully understand and perform the mechanics of combat, but they have to operate in an environment that soldiers may find counter-intuitive. Normally their mission is to kill a uniformed enemy, but in counterinsurgency the use of force may actually create more enemies. Finding the balance necessary in the use of lethal violence is difficult, even impossible.

Add the difficulty in identifying the enemy, understanding radically different cultures, religions, and languages, and protecting your own personnel to counterinsurgency certainly makes it seem like a more difficult and challenging type of warfare than the already difficult conventional warfare. On top of these challenges, soldiers are asked to build roads, hospitals, and schools, protect the populace from violence, and deal with the negative actions of their predecessors.

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