Twenty-Eight Articles: Fundamentals of Company-Level Counterinsurgency by Dr

Twenty-Eight Articles: Fundamentals of Company-Level Counterinsurgency by Dr. David Kilcullen, Lieutenant Colonel, Australian Army Editorial Abstract: The author presents a tactical-level preparatory guide, based on lessons learned from personal campaign experience. He emphasizes the necessity of proper mental and situational preparation, and offers a series of recommendations for applying concepts and ideas in the real world of personal-level influence operations. Introduction than you. But you have more combat it every night before sleep, and re-draw power than you can or should use in most it from memory every morning, until our company has just been warned for situations. Injudicious use of firepower you understand its patterns intuitively. Ydeployment on counterinsurgency creates blood feuds, homeless people Develop a mental model of your area—a operations in Iraq or Afghanistan. You and societal disruption that fuels and framework in which to fit every new have read David Galula, T.E. Lawrence perpetuates the insurgency. The most piece of knowledge you acquire. Study and Robert Thompson. You have beneficial actions are often local politics, handover notes from predecessors; better studied FM 3-24 and now understand civic action, and beat-cop behaviors. still, get in touch with the unit in theater the history, philosophy and theory of For your side to win, the people do and pick their brains. In an ideal world, counterinsurgency. You watched Black not have to like you but they must intelligence officers and area experts Hawk Down and The Battle of Algiers, respect you, accept that your actions would brief you. This rarely happens: and you know this will be the most benefit them, and trust your integrity and even if it does, there is no substitute difficult challenge of your life. and ability to deliver on promises, for personal mastery. Understand the But what does all that theory mean, particularly regarding their security. broader “area of influence”—this can be at the company level? How do the In this battlefield popular perceptions a wide area, particularly when insurgents principles translate into action - at night, and rumor are more influential than the draw on “global” grievances. Share out with the GPS down, the media criticizing facts and more powerful than a hundred aspects of the operational area among you, the locals complaining in a language tanks. platoon leaders and non-commissioned you don’t understand, and an unseen Within this context, what follows officers: have each individual develop enemy killing your people by ones and are observations from collective a personal specialization and brief the twos? How does counterinsurgency experience: the distilled essence of others. Neglect this knowledge, and it actually happen? what those who went before you learned. will kill you. There are no universal answers, and They are expressed as commandments, 2. Diagnose the problem. Once insurgents are among the most adaptive for clarity—but are really more like opponents you will ever face. Countering you know your area and its people, folklore. Apply them judiciously and you can begin to diagnose the problem. them will demand every ounce of your skeptically. intellect. But be comforted: you are Who are the insurgents? What drives not the first to feel this way. There are Preparation them? What makes local leaders tick? Counterinsurgency is fundamentally tactical fundamentals you can apply, to Time is short during pre-deployment, a competition, between each side, to link the theory with the techniques and but you will never have more time to mobilize the population in support of procedures you already know. think than you have now. Now is your its agenda. So you must understand chance to prepare yourself and your what motivates the people and how What Is command. Counterinsurgency? to mobilize them. You need to know 1. Know your turf. Know the why and how the insurgents are getting If you have not studied people, the topography, economy, history, followers. This means you need to know counterinsurgency theory, here it is in religion and culture. Know every village, your real enemy, not a cardboard cut-out. a nutshell: this is a competition with the road, field, population group, tribal leader The enemy is adaptive, resourceful and insurgent for the right and the ability to and ancient grievance. Your task is to probably grew up in the region where you win the hearts, minds and acquiescence become the world expert on your district. will operate. The locals have known him of the population. You are being sent in If you don’t know precisely where you since he was a boy—how long have they because the insurgents, at their strongest, will be operating, study the general known you? Your worst opponent is not can defeat anything with less strength area. Read the map like a book: study the psychopathic terrorist of Hollywood, 29 it is the charismatic follow-me warrior counterinsurgency is inter-agency. And or RPG, a shemagh and a water bottle who would make your best platoon everything important—from policing to if he is lucky. Unless you ruthlessly leader. His followers are not misled or intelligence to civil-military operations lighten your load and enforce a culture naïve: much of his success is due to bad to trash collection—will involve your of speed and mobility, the insurgents will government policies or security forces company working with civilian actors consistently out-run and out-maneuver that alienate the population. Work this and local indigenous partners you cannot you. But in lightening your load, make problem collectively with your platoon control, but whose success is essential sure you can always “reach back” to call and squad leaders. Discuss ideas, for yours. Train the company in inter- for firepower or heavy support if needed. explore the problem, understand what agency operations—get a briefing from Also, remember to harden your CSS. The you are facing, and seek a consensus. If the State Department, aid agencies and enemy will attack your weakest points. this sounds unmilitary, get over it. Once the local Police or Fire Brigade. Train Most attacks on coalition forces in Iraq you are in theater, situations will arise too point-men in each squad to deal with in 2004 and 2005, outside pre-planned quickly for orders, or even commander’s the inter-agency. Realize that civilians combat actions like the two battles of intent. Corporals and privates will have find rifles, helmets and body armor Fallujah or Operation Iron Horse, were to make snap judgments with strategic intimidating. Learn how not to scare against CSS installations and convoys. impact. The only way to help them is them. Ask others who come from that You do the math. Ensure your CSS assets to give them a shared understanding, country or culture about your ideas. are hardened, have communications, and then trust them to think for themselves See it through the eyes of a civilian are trained in combat operations. They on the day. who knows nothing about the military. may do more fighting than your rifle 3. Organize for intelligence. squads. In counterinsurgency, killing 6. Find a political/cultural the enemy is easy. Finding adviser. In a force optimized him is often nearly impossible. for counterinsurgency, you Intelligence and operations might receive a political/ are complementary. Your cultural adviser at company operations will be intelligence level: a diplomat or military driven, but intelligence will foreign area officer, able to come mostly from your own speak the language and navigate operations, not as a “product” the intricacies of local politics. prepared and served up by Back on planet Earth, the Corps higher headquarters. So you and Division commander will must organize for intelligence. get a POLAD: you will not, so You will need a company S2 and you must improvise. Find a intelligence section - including political/cultural adviser from analysts. You may need platoon among your people - perhaps an S2s and S3s, and you will need a Australian Civil-Military Team in East Timor officer, perhaps not (see article reconnaissance and surveillance (MOD Australia) 8). Someone with people skills element. You will not have and a “feel” for the environment enough linguists—you never do—but will do better than a political science consider carefully where best to employ How would you react if foreigners came graduate. Don’t try to be your own them. Linguists are a battle-winning to your neighborhood and conducted cultural adviser: you must be fully aware asset: but like any other scarce resource the operations you planned? What of the political and cultural dimension, you must have a prioritized “bump plan” if somebody came to your mother’s but this is a different task. Also, don’t in case you lose them. Often during pre- house and did that? Most importantly, give one of your intelligence people deployment the best use of linguists is to know that your operations will create this role. They can help, but their task train your command in basic language. temporary breathing space, but long- is to understand the environment—the You will probably not get augmentation term development and stabilization by political adviser’s job is to help shape for all this: but you must still do it. Put civilian agencies will ultimately win it. the war. the smartest soldiers in the S2 section 7. Train the squad leaders—then and the R&S squad. You will have one 5. Travel light and harden your trust them. Counterinsurgency is a less rifle squad: but the intelligence CSS (Combat Service Support). You squad and platoon leader’s war, and often section will pay for itself in lives and will be weighed down with body a private soldier’s war.

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