Army Lt. Col. John A. Nagl wrote the book on counterinsurgency. Literally.

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John A. Nagl

Army Lt. Col. John A. Nagl wrote the book on counterinsurgency. Literally.

By Dawn S. Onley
Editor

Army Lt. Col. John A. Nagl wrote the book on counter-insurgency. Literally.

Nagl is author of the widely respected “Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam,” which draws lessons learned from insurgent movements faced by the British Army in Malaysia and the U.S. Army in Vietnam.

Language barriers continue to affect the counterinsurgency mission. “Communication is key to deriving the intelligence to win the war,” said Nagl, commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, 34th Armor, at Fort Riley, Kansas. “We are relearning many of the lessons we learned from Vietnam.”

The U.S. military has proven to be particularly adept at winning the quick battle, deploying a cache of brute force. But winning the daily ground fight against insurgents who hide out in civilian populations and remain largely invisible to troops has been more difficult, Nagl said.

“The hardest part of the counterinsurgency fight is not killing your enemy, but finding your enemy,” said Nagl, who spoke recently at AFCEA International’s West 2007 Conference in San Diego. Shortly after the conference, Nagl flew to Afghanistan for a few weeks to see how the U.S. military is training the Afghan National Army and police.

“The key to success in counterinsurgency is winning and keeping the trust of the people with a minimum amount of force,” he said.

The key to winning is also putting additional boots on the ground, Nagl said. “Additional troops is absolutely essential in my eyes if we are to continue to win this war,” Nagl said. “These are long, hard fights and don’t believe anybody who tells you otherwise.”

DEFENSE SYSTEMS: How is technology aiding the counterinsurgency fight in Afghanistan and Iraq?

NAGL: “We are increasingly using simulation to model the situations our soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines are going to find and this is providing better responses. Our intent is to make sure they don’t confront anything in Iraq and Afghanistan that we haven’t shown them first in Fort Riley, Kansas.”