Tony Thomas, American Badass
Abu Muqawama has spent the past half hour reading Stéphane Taillat's excellent blog, which is now linked on the right. Thanks, Stéphane, for linking to this briefing by BG Tony Thomas from Iraq. Abu Muqawama was excited to read this briefing, mainly because it means that Tony Thomas is still in the Army and got promoted to general despite earning a reputation for pissing important people off during a long and distinguished career in the U.S. Army Ranger Regiment and, uh, another unit. No kidding, this guy is beloved by his former troops and is a complete badass. Abu Muqawama used to get nervous when he spoke to him, and Abu Muqawama almost never gets nervous. You can read his official bio here. An Army that continues to promote this man is an army that will win wars.
8 comments:
Many thanks, great Abu :)
One regret: my blog is written exclusively in French (even if my sources are American ones... including your blog).
I had a dream that all American fan of COIN would learn French to read something else than Galula (sorry to say that, because there's a lot of good stuff in Galula's book... which was published in French only one month ago... but i dislike -to say the least- the way he is pictured as the "French Master Counterinsurgent", as if his thoughts were the alpha and omega of French COIN)...Try Lyautey (who is not translated in English) or even general DELOYEN, a Bob Denard-like officer in French Marines who made extensive campaigns in Indochina, in Algeria, in Chad (he made his first guerrilla experiences during WWII as a resistant)...
And feel free to make any comment on my blog.
Cordialement
Stéphane TAILLAT
PS: maybe i could draft a reading list of French literature on COIN (it would be very quickly done :) )
PPS: i recommend the works from Major-general Vincent DESPORTES, a contemporary French officer in cavalry who lead the CDEF (Centre de Doctrine d'Emploi des Forces... Doctrine Division of French Army). The CDEF site can be accessed here:
www.cdef.terre.defense.gouv.fr/
It has good materials on various issues, most that are translated in English. For French reader, i recommend the "cahiers de la recherche doctrinale " which last issue deals with helicopters in Stabilization Ops in Algeria
Stéphane, if you draft such a reading list and either post it on your blog or send it via email to abumuqawama@hotmail.com, we'll cross-post it on the blog. A few of our readers read enough French, I'm sure, to appreciate such a list. I sure would.
If English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for COIN.*
*Or, O how I wish I had tried harder in French class in college.
Heh, I figured you were talking about SFOD-D. You weren't lying, though. He is indeed a complete badass. I especially like the part about getting promoted despite pissing important people off. That's my kind of an officer.
Stéphane, that's an excellent reason to learn French. I was already planning on picking it up for different reasons, but now I definitely will, just for that reason.
Ironic Goat, it was a joke... It was the same for me in German (and even in English. I remember spending a lot of time reading the declaration of Independence instead of having fun :))
PS: ABU, I'd like to recommend you another blog in french
reflexionstrategique.blogspot.com/
and another
lefrontasymetrique.blogspot.com/
It's too bad Spanish forces in Afghanistan are incapable; otherwise perhaps I could post links to blogs that our readers can't read...
Kip
His whole bio is service with light infantry and SOF and now he is the ADC-S for a Armor Division. WTF? I guess it will make him more "well rounded"
runescape money runescape gold runescape gold runescape money buy runescape gold buy runescape money runescape money runescape gold wow power leveling wow powerleveling Warcraft Power Leveling Warcraft PowerLeveling buy runescape gold buy runescape money runescape items runescape accounts runescape gp dofus kamas buy dofus kamas Guild Wars Gold buy Guild Wars Gold lotro gold buy lotro gold lotro gold buy lotro gold lotro gold buy lotro gold runescape money runescape power leveling runescape money runescape gold dofus kamas cheap runescape money cheap runescape gold Hellgate Palladium Hellgate London Palladium Hellgate money Tabula Rasa gold tabula rasa money Tabula Rasa Credit Tabula Rasa Credits Hellgate gold Hellgate London gold wow power leveling wow powerleveling Warcraft PowerLeveling Warcraft Power Leveling World of Warcraft PowerLeveling World of Warcraft Power Leveling runescape power leveling runescape powerleveling eve isk eve online isk eve isk eve online isk tibia gold Fiesta Silver Fiesta Gold SilkRoad Gold buy SilkRoad Gold runescape accounts buy runescape accounts rs2 accounts buy rs2 accounts runescape power leveling rs2 power leveling FFXI Gil buy FFXI Gil gaia gold buy gaia gold buy dofus kamas buy dofus kamas dofus kamas runescape accounts buy runescape accounts rs2 accounts buy rs2 accounts runescape power leveling rs2 power leveling rs2 gold buy rs2 gold runescape
Post a Comment