Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife

[cassh]

Thought some may find this interesting - especially as more of this type of warfighting is taking place for western armies. Nagl is well read and I found the new forward of particular interest. Good to see a thoughtful military thinker address this subject matter.

Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife : Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam by John A. Nagl.

Having just returned from a tour in Iraq, his new forward proves quite interesting in light of his experience fighting counter-insurgency for real.

[aka_tom_w]

VERY interesting

Book Description

Invariably, armies are accused of preparing to fight the previous war. In Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife, Lieutenant Colonel John A. Nagl—a veteran of both Operation Desert Storm and the current conflict in Iraq—considers the now-crucial question of how armies adapt to changing circumstances during the course of conflicts for which they are initially unprepared. Through the use of archival sources and interviews with participants in both engagements, Nagl compares the development of counterinsurgency doctrine and practice in the Malayan Emergency from 1948 to 1960 with what developed in the Vietnam War from 1950 to 1975.

In examining these two events, Nagl—the subject of a recent New York Times Magazine cover story by Peter Maass—argues that organizational culture is key to the ability to learn from unanticipated conditions, a variable which explains why the British army successfully conducted counterinsurgency in Malaya but why the American army failed to do so in Vietnam, treating the war instead as a conventional conflict. Nagl concludes that the British army, because of its role as a colonial police force and the organizational characteristics created by its history and national culture, was better able to quickly learn and apply the lessons of counterinsurgency during the course of the Malayan Emergency.

With a new preface reflecting on the author's combat experience in Iraq, Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife is a timely examination of the lessons of previous counterinsurgency campaigns that will be hailed by both military leaders and interested civilians.

and

Nagl wrote the book on counterinsurgency - before the current war in Iraq, August 22, 2005

Reviewer: Mark Steele (PA USA) - See all my reviews

How does an army learn to fight an effective counterinsurgency? Sound relevant to today's headlines? John Nagl asked this question before it was "cool" - before the pundits of CNN or MSNBC knew how to spell "counterinsurgency". This book - Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife - is his answer. John is a scholar and a soldier who combines academic prowess and firsthand experience in counterinsurgency. LTC John Nagl is a West Point graduate (and in the interests of disclosure, a classmate of the reviewer), an armor officer, a Rhodes Scholar, a former instructor of International Affairs at West Point, and a veteran of the insurgency in Iraq.

The insurgency in Iraq had not begun when the hardcover edition of his book came out in 2002. Unfortunately, it's not at all certain that the people who opened the current war in Iraq read it. This 2nd edition includes a new author's preface discussing the relationship between his earlier scholarship and his recent combat experiences in Iraq. He candidly discusses what he now thinks of his own work based upon his first-hand experience with insurgency.

The depth of LTC Nagl's research is evident in every chapter and should satisfy the rigor of academia while, at the same time, his writing style is clear, concise, and leaves little doubt as to his reasoning. To be successful in an age of insurgencies, Nagl concludes that the Army "will have to make the ability to learn to deal with messy, uncomfortable situations an integral part" of its organizational culture. It must, per T.E. Lawrence, be comfortable eating soup with a knife. Victory in a fluid insurgency requires the ability to learn and to adapt and may even require differing victory conditions, organizations, and core competencies depending upon the context.

Nagl's own experiences have only hammered home the truth of this necessity. His unit was required to change its equipment, its organization, and develop new core competencies to transform from a tank battalion focused on a Soviet-style armored threat into a counterinsurgency (see "Professor Nagl's War" in the NY Times Sunday Magazine, Jan. 11, 2004). They integrated people and tools not normally found in a battalion task force in conventional battle (such as Civil Affairs and Counterintelligence teams - see "Soldier Uses Wits to Hunt Insurgents" by Greg Jaffe in the Wall Street Journal, Sep. 10, 2004). They hunted the enemy while at the same time acting as impromptu diplomats, aid workers, military and police trainers, and tribal mediators. This experience in Iraq was what Nagl describes as the most intense learning experience of his life.

This book was worth it - without the new information - as a hardcover at $89.95. At $17 in paperback, "Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife" should be on the shelf of every American interested in the current situation in Iraq and in how the US can prevail.

[Denwad]

stab the bowl and drink the soup

[Sergei]

No, freeze the soup.

[Nidan1]

Originally posted by Sergei:

No, freeze the soup.

Try that in the desert or the tropics...the whole rest of the world isn't covered in ice you know.

[Sergei]

But most of the world has got electricity...

[Nidan1]

Originally posted by Sergei:

But most of the world has got electricity...

Even Finland???

[John D Salt]

Originally posted by Nidan1:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Sergei:

But most of the world has got electricity...

Even Finland??? </font>

[SSgt Viljuri]

Nidan1 wrote:

Even Finland???

Dunno how's things with completely fictional guys like "Tom of Finland" or "Sergei of Finland", but we are not completely unaware about electricity here.

Granted, I'm not so sure about those far northern locations, but at least on the southern coast, where most of the Finns live, we have heard about the secret of electricity.

[Nidan1]

Originally posted by SSgt Viljuri:

Nidan1 wrote: </font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr /> Even Finland???

Dunno how's things with completely fictional guys like "Tom of Finland" or "Sergei of Finland", but we are not completely unaware about electricity here.

Granted, I'm not so sure about those far northern locations, but at least on the southern coast, where most of the Finns live, we have heard about the secret of electricity. </font>

[John D Salt]

Originally posted by Nidan1:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by SSgt Viljuri:

Nidan1 wrote: </font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr /> Even Finland???

Dunno how's things with completely fictional guys like "Tom of Finland" or "Sergei of Finland", but we are not completely unaware about electricity here.

Granted, I'm not so sure about those far northern locations, but at least on the southern coast, where most of the Finns live, we have heard about the secret of electricity. </font>