That's right, a cocktail napkin
The Front Page, a popular Washington, D.C., bistro, was an unlikely place for the genesis of a radical new war strategy for Iraq. But on Nov. 7, 2005, over gourmet burgers and beer, an equally unlikely group of military men and Ivy League eggheads sketched out a plan for a new Army and Marine Corps counterinsurgency manual -- on a cocktail napkin.
Read the rest of the history of the COIN FM (3-24) here.
And hats off to BC undergrad Cullen Nutt, who turned a chance meeting with Nate Fick (at a book signing!) into a senior thesis and outstanding narrative history of the origins of the FM. To the best of Charlie's knowledge, no one has written it up so completely. Certainly no one else talks about the Front Page...
Update: AM here. Bravo, Cullen! It's pretty cool that the first person to tell this story is a) a regular reader of this blog and b) still an undergraduate. There's something to be said for a Jesuit education after all.
Update II: SWJ has a response from LTC Gentile, where he argues that there was no where near as much debate surrounding 3-24 as Cullen's story implies. Charlie is looking forward to reading his competing approach to counter-insurgency operations.
5 comments:
I can add that Cullen, with whom i exchanged e-mails last week, is a very talented person. I didn't know he was only an undergraduate :)
During my researches, i found something similar to his narrative, except that i was not able to connect all the dots, what Cullen is doing perfectly well in this op-ed.
Hats off to Cullen for this great account, and to Gen. Petraeus for helping him do it - as another undergrad whom the general has helped out, I'm not surprised. Also not surprised that the thing started at the Front Page.
Today on SWJ:
"To correct the record. I did not play any role in the formulation of 3-24, although I would have been proud to associate myself with it. And I am not a neo-conservative. I am a military historian and analyst offering my best professional advice in the interests of the nation. The advice may be good or not good, but it is not offered in the service of any ideological vision, and I resent the entirely gratuitous and erroneous slap by a man I have taught with and respect. Let's debate these important issues on their merits, Gian."
-- Frederick Kagan
The Front Page? Are any other DC dwellers amazed that people smart enough to sketch out COIN strategy on a napkin aren't smart enough to find a better burger place in the District?
Only thing The Front Page is good for is drunk co-eds on a Saturday night; somehow this has escaped our finest military minds.
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