Petraeus

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Summary

  1. Overwhelming force
  2. Do not try to do too much with your own hands.”
  3. concept of liberation has a half-life.
  4. Money is ammunition.
  5. Increasing the number of stakeholders
  6. end the day with fewer enemies than you began
  7. intelligence, intelligence, intelligence
  8. Everyone must do nation-building.
  9. Help build institutions, not just units.
  10. Cultural awareness is a force multiplier.
  11. counterinsurgency requires more than just military
  12. Ultimate success depends on local leaders.
  13. Its a section commanders battle
  14. There is no substitute for flexible, adaptable leaders.
  15. A leader’s most important task is to set the right tone.

Overwhelming force

  1. makes it unlikely that future enemies will confront us head on
  2. asymmetric warfare, avoide out strengths: firepower, meneuver, and technology

+centre for armies lessons learned

  1. internet has sped up the processs of collection, evaluation, and dissemination of intelligence

1. “Do not try to do too much with your own hands.”

  • Better the Arabs do it tolerably than that you

do it perfectly.

  • it is their war and you are here to help not to win it for them
  • your practical work is not as useful as you think it is
  • unleash the power of local human capital

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2. Act quickly, because every Army of liberation has a half-life.

  • half life is dependent on the perceptions of the populace
  • in iraq the clock was shortened by Iraqi expectations, pride in their own ability, and reluctant admission that help was needed

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3. Money is ammunition.

  • cerp fund - commander's emergency resconstruction program

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4. Increasing the number of stakeholders is critical to success.

  • this is the natural evolution of hearts and minds make them a part of the organization - co-opt them

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5. Analyze “costs and benefits” before each operation.

  • will the operation take more bad guys off the street than it creates by the way it is conducted
  • you are fighting an armed adversary, protecting a vulnerable civilian populations and must ensure that you tactics in doing so do not convince more civilians to become insurgents
  • try to end each day with fewer enemies than when you began
  • targetted operations: 10 digit grid, photo of the netry point, reasonable description of the target, directions to location, neighbourhood power structure,

6. Intelligence is the key to success.

  • targeted operations: 10 digit grid, photo of the entry point, reasonable description of the target, directions to location, neighbourhood power structure,

7. Everyone must do nation-building.

  • when engaged in industrial strength reconstruction
  • university of Mosul was a source of pride that would boost moral if reconstructed
  • civil affairs was not capable of repairing and reopening a heavily looted campus of 75 buildings
  • in these situation each brigade should be given a pet project to assist
  • A senior commander and staff and numerous subordinate commanders are collectively a considerable organization with capacity and capability
  • line up every unit with their local civilian equivilant ministry and line up commanders with every leader and official

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8. Help build institutions, not just units.

  • long term success is cotingent on administrative capacity
  • lack of administrative capacity undermines the devleopment of units
  • otherwise, using political instead of professional criteria for hire will set in
  • otherwise, soldiers will not get paid and corruption will set in

9. Cultural awareness is a force multiplier.

  • knowledge of cultural terrain
  • survival arabic

10. Success in a counterinsurgency requires more than just military operations.

  • economic recovery
  • education: which opens up employment and reduces the power of insurgent indoctrination
  • diplomacy: neighbouring states

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11. Ultimate success depends on local leaders.

  • national leaders: encourage enclusiveness discourage sectarian thinking and short term solutions such as militias
  • ministry leaders: build capacity, transparency, honesty
  • Provincial leaders: resist winner take all politics and politicization of police
  • security force leaders: support all units not just those with sectarian allegiance

12. Remember the strategic corporals and strategic lieutenants.

  • Its a section commanders battle
  • senior leadership don't micromanage boots on the ground, it is impossible
  • HUAA

13. There is no substitute for flexible, adaptable leaders.

  • when young leaders seek and accept responsibility with little or no training the capacity of your organization exponentially increases

14. A leader’s most important task is to set the right tone.

  • consistency of message
  • operations: you can't have hearts and minds in one unit and kill em all in the next unit
  • Kinetic operations
  • ethics:

Let us get our young leaders away from the grindstone now and then, and encourage them to reflect on developments outside the fortress-cloister.
Success, now and in the future, depend not only

on his character, knowledge, and skills, but also, and more than ever before, on his ability to understand the changing environment of conflict.
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