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Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars In The Midst Of A Big One (2010)

by David Kilcullen(Favorite Author)

4.03 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1850659559 (ISBN13: 9781850659556)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

C Hurst & Company

review 1: Global Terrorism is essentially a global ideological insurgency and can be better understood like a sociological infection. Like an unhealthy part of the body that has broken down and started to rot, once infection sets in it starts to rapidly spread. David Kilcullen states that though an infection needs to be treated you can't just keep cutting it out over and over again as a solution (Military Option). Instead it needs to also be treated with possible social antibiotics (government stabilization/reform/aid/development) that can prevent the spread of infection and eventually eliminate it. The author prescribes a list of ideas for both how this infection gets started as well as what to do once it has set in. The Guerrilla-Terrorist agenda is no secret, they have made ... moreabundantly clear how they intend to achieve their end goals. Employing well-known guerrilla tactics one of them is through provocation for retaliation in hopes that the retaliation will be heavy-handed and alienate more of the local populace thus creating a larger pool of Terrorist supporters. The provocations are continued until through over-extension the economic weight of the military response causes the country to go bankrupt. Instead through an extremely judicious use of force as well as aid and development, strategically applied, can dislodge bases of support for terrorists and force them to come out and fight where they can be more readily defeated. At its core this is an ideological battle, one that has to be fought with ideas as well as weapons. People will follow who ever can deliver on their promises and provides the most compelling vision of how life should be. Part of waging an ideological war begins with Governments reducing corruption in their own ranks and providing the basic necessities of good governance.
review 2: I found this to be a very valuable book from an author who is a recognized expert in counter insurgency warfare. He describes the lessons he has learned from his experiences, first as an officer in the Royal Australian Regiment who dealt with the insurgency at the time that East Timor gained its independence, to his experiences as a senior representative of the US State Department where he conducted field trips to Iraq and Afghanistan. The main problem with the book is that you have to sift the gems out from a narrative that at times is repetitive, and at other times deals with somewhat less distinct examples of counter terrorism, such as conflcts in Europe. The prose does have an style that reminds one that it is probably a product of his PhD. thesis. But the lessons that he has learned should be studied by anyone interested in this topic, as he argues that we are entering a new era of "hybrid" warfare, unlike the wars of the 20th century, and this will be with us for many decades. less

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