steve on Nostr: “The West’s War Against Islamic State” by Andrew Mumford ⭐️⭐️ ...
“The West’s War Against Islamic State” by Andrew Mumford
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America’s war in Syria and Iraq in the later half of the 2010s represented a shift in military employment. Rather than sending thousands of troops to conduct counterinsurgency missions in an area where they had limited cultural understanding, Obama opted for “advise & assist” missions with special operations forces on the ground paired with readily available fires from coalition air forces. This method was designed to force ownership of the ground mission to local forces while still providing the lethality of Western air power. While this combination proved effective at rolling back ISIS, it also highlighted the complexities of waging a proxy war amongst disparate groups that don’t always cooperate. Mumford is admittedly brave for taking on such a recent “history”, but his accounting is consequently very biased. That said, it still serves as a great conversation starter for a conflict that highlighted many do’s (and don’ts) for waging war in the Information Age.
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America’s war in Syria and Iraq in the later half of the 2010s represented a shift in military employment. Rather than sending thousands of troops to conduct counterinsurgency missions in an area where they had limited cultural understanding, Obama opted for “advise & assist” missions with special operations forces on the ground paired with readily available fires from coalition air forces. This method was designed to force ownership of the ground mission to local forces while still providing the lethality of Western air power. While this combination proved effective at rolling back ISIS, it also highlighted the complexities of waging a proxy war amongst disparate groups that don’t always cooperate. Mumford is admittedly brave for taking on such a recent “history”, but his accounting is consequently very biased. That said, it still serves as a great conversation starter for a conflict that highlighted many do’s (and don’ts) for waging war in the Information Age.