Anatomy of a Successful COIN Operation: OEF-Philippines and The Indirect Approach (Wilson, 2006)

Operation Enduring Freedom-Philippines

COIN - Counter-insurgency

http://usacac.army.mil/CAC2/MilitaryReview/Archives/English/MilitaryReview_2008CRII0831_art009.pdf

Colonel Gregory Wilson, U.S. Army, recently completed an Army War College Fellowship in irregular warfare and counterterrorism with the Defense Analysis Department at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He is currently serving as the operations director for Special Operations Command South in Homestead, Florida.

COL Wilson holds a B.S. from the U.S. military Academy and an M.S. from the Naval Postgraduate School, and is a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He has served in various command and staff positions in the continental United States, Europe, and the Southern Philippines.

p.41 McCormick defines control as "the ability to see everything in one's area of operation that might pose a threat to security and the ability to influence what is seen." [JLJ - Wilson cites Class notes from Dr. Gordon McCormick's "Seminar on Guerrilla Warfare," Department of Defense Analysis, Naval Postgraduate School, October 2005.] This level of visibility requires an extensive human intelligence network; it cannot be achieved by technological means.

p.41 the state can use [actionable intelligence] to target the insurgency's infrastructure

p.47 The best way to confront a network is to create a counternetwork, a non-hierarchical organization capable of responding quickly to actionable intelligence*.

p.47 "the indirect approach" offers us the most direct path to victory.

*Having the necessary information immediately available in order to deal with the situation at hand, or a process of analyzing multi-dimensional facets of actionable information to arrive at an action plan.

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