Links and Notes

Since I've been doing that day-job thing a lot lately without time to really put together coherent thoughts of my own, I figured I would pass along a couple of things that I've read in the last week that were really good.

First up is from SWJ from the pens of Adam Elkus and Crispin Burke (AKA Starbuck) on Operational Design. This is a great article on the history and nuances of Design. Great stuff.

Second was posted today at al Sahwa. Josh McLaughlin writes on his experience on trying to bomb the correct target in Mosul in 2008 in order to shed some perspective on the rocket attack in Marja that killed a number of civilians. I have to say that I've been his shoes a few times - trying to figure out which building the enemy is holed up in and making sure you blow up the correct one (and the correct people with it). It can be extraordinarily difficult to do in ideal circumstances. I've never bought the maxim that COIN is the graduate school of war. Killing bad dudes, whether insurgents or tank companies, is pretty hard to do in any environment. Especially if you're trying to avoid killing civilians, which you should be doing in COIN or HIC.

And now for some notes. As things finally settle at work a little, I hope to be writing much more here. For those of you in the DC area, a few of us will be at the CNAS event on Thursday (free booze! And you know, policy stuff, too). It should prove interesting at least, if only because my favorite Air Force officer, Charlie Dunlap, will be on the panel.

I've also followed Gulliver's lead and am now on Twitter (http://twitter.com/GunslingerInkSp). Yes, I'm a little behind the times, but better late than never.