Why US COIN Will Not Work~ An OP/ED by John Stanton

First I just wanted to pass this along for those interested in the topic and subject material.
I have exchanged emails with Mr Stanton and our correspondence is based on a common interest association.

That being said, his back ground is very credible and I highly recommended, any one not familiar with his work, but interested in the subject matter, will be impressed, at least I was.

Military, political and economic leaders/thinkers in the USA often compare themselves, and their citizenry, to a US contact football team that is engaged in a struggle on the global gridiron. But unlike their QB/MLB counterparts on a team, America’s leaders/thinkers do not have a fully functional strategic/operational playbook (national strategy). They lack endurance to play for four quarters (finish the mission, stay on target); have too many head coaches (defense contractors, foreign influence; e.g.—Israel, Saudi Arabia, China); and can’t get the many units that make up a team to work together (interagency, cross-service effectiveness).

I have seen the above first hand, I know the COIN SOP's and TTP's, my unit wrote the new book so to say while deployed for my units mission. These people up above in charge are ignorant of the reality on the ground, having seen it myself, I know how jacked up it is for separate units and military elements to work together, with out pre planning.

Units refused to even conduct RIP "relief in place" and get our briefs for the AO, they were blind coming into our AO to take over and didn't even want to know what we knew from being there for a year. It was their first mistake, because they lost people the first 3 days they arrived, should have listened to us...

So, unless our government is going to let people who know what their doing take charge, they need to redress their thinking.

The greedy individuals of our government have highjacked our DoD, and are using it for their own personal gains, with out regard to those whom the costs are paid by...our soldiers who will be remembered on Memorial Day.

The covenant that Americans had between their Constitution and the public servants entrusted to protect it has been broken. They realize the country is not theirs.
COIN Blade .doc

Let it be known, those who knew, tried...

reply to post by ADVISOR


Mr. Stanton is spot on. There is no real continuity to COIN. I have seen units come into the various AO's all cocky as in their opinion, "They had been there, Done that ”, attitude. It always ended badly for them.

I am assuming that you are talking about either a PRT or a HTT.

It would seem that when conducting Joint Ops, especially with OGA's and OGO's you would get the players together as soon as you identify who is going and start training them along with the unit they support and a clear Chain of Command.

Every deployment is different. I've been to Diyala three times and the locals knew me. Many times we had THT’s CA, TPT’s, MP's etc, all bundled into a patrol, all doing their own thing, often working against each other without even realizing it. Add a couple of State Dept. bubbas in the mix and you always have a lively AAR after the patrol.

I have to give kudos to the Marines though, I've always enjoyed working with my fellow Brothers in Arms. They seemed to get things done, whether in combat or a civil military operation.

Thank God I recently retired. I’ve always remarked that it would be my CoC that would give me PTSD. I realize that it’s the enemy’s job to try to kill me, not my own Commands.

I would recommend creating Joint PRT/HTT specific units where the people work together at all times and if AC, when they transfer, they transfer to another PRT/HTT. You get to know the people within that community that way. Everyone has a clear mission and common goal that way as well..

reply to post by TDawgRex


No actually was referring to our mission as RSTA and we had DART QRF as secondary.

I was with the 6th Squadron 9th Regiment, 3rd HBCT of the 1st Cavalry Division. During 07 we operated in the Diyala province when the surge was bad. It was full spectrum operations so we worked with every one. There is an exclusive interview with DaveRabbit and Johnny Anonymous on the ATS podcast section from when I was deployed.

It was a fairly new concept for our mission, so there was no official play book so to speak, and every thing evolved constantly, so what worked once or maybe twice doesn't after.

No one wanted to hear what wasn't working, they just wanted to keep throwing hail marries thinking it was going to win the game, when in reality it only worked on a couple plays...

reply to post by ADVISOR


Ah, FOB Warhorse?,.good times. Had a crappers roof blown off while I was still in it, at least I didn't crap my pants as they were down at the time.

Myself, I love working new concepts to see what works and what doesn’t. But like you, get quite annoyed when no one listens or even worse, arm chair quarterbacks after the fact. Just one of the many reasons I got out. I do realize I’m not always right, but working new TTP’s is a team concept.

I arrived a couple months after 2nd ID RIP'ed with y'all and was still there when 2nd SCR came and still there when 25th ID came. We had guys in Muqda-Fing-Dyah, Caldwell and various COPs throughout. My RIP went good and they told me they missed the CAV as they didn't play well with the 2nd. The guys who replaced us were another cocky crew, so that RIP didn’t go to well.


By the way, I served half my career as a light scout, the other half as a 37F. I was at war with myself a lot


Should I shoot him or shake his hands and introduce myeself

reply to post by TDawgRex


No, FOB Normandy.

We were doing combat operations further east than Warhorse, and a touch north almost on the border of Iran.
Our supply guy spent lots of time in Warhorse, he was supposed to be bringing us supplies out to PB Kwal, but never did. We would spend 30 days out there with no more than occasional logpack if we were lucky.

Yeah, Muqdadiyah was where I spend my entire deployment. Some times we would get out and patrol through Abu Saydah.