20 June 2009

Links of the Day

Not much interesting to say today, so I'll just go to a few links of the day.

Boss Mongo gets the first shout-out for the day--he read the same Stars and Stripes article that I did the other day came up with an excellent post, going into the real definition of the Arabic word, "inshallah", as well as some commentary on the performance of the Iraqi security forces. Well worth a look.

Secondly, are women better suited towards the subtleties of counter-insurgency than men? A recent post in Foreign Policy's SWJ Weekly update seems to indicate that there is some evidence from the field that suggests that this is the case. (Talked about in WOI previously here and here, with one post inspired by a post by Greg in Mexico). Anyone want to take bets on when Ralph Peters is going to read that article and make a claim that all the COINdinistas are effeminate?

Lastly, courtesy of Greyhawk, here are two milbloggers (#1, #2) who will attest to the massive sandstorm ("haboob" in Arabic) that we experienced the other day. I still taste sand.

1 comment:

Boss Mongo said...

Don't know if the fairer sex makes better counter-insurgents, but I know they bring a whole new bent to the program when they're insurgents. All the COINistas I've spoken to that dealt with chica insurgents (primarily in the FARC and the Sendero Luminoso) would shudder when they'd talk about female insurgents. You just knew you were going to be in a no-quarter-given fight if there were chicks in the G-base. Don't see why you can't turn it around, although I think the SWJ update is looking at the feminine mystique from a different perspective.