COINstock ‘09

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Thursday, September 24, 2009 - 7:42 PM Share

So I spent yesterday at a Marine Corps conference on counterinsurgency. It was packed (and the room was as hot as Baghdad in April). I'll write several posts on it. But the big surprise to me was the big dog who wasn't there: The U.S. Army. Aside from Gen. Petraeus, an outlier who was expelled into the Joint World long ago, and his posse member Brig. Gen. H.R. McMaster, no Army officers spoke. It amazes me that there were more speakers from my little CNAS (pop. maybe 35 on a good day) than from the Army (pop. more than half a million).  

Note: This post has been updated.

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad/Getty Images

EXPLORE:MILITARY, U.S. FOREIGN POLICY
 
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TYRTAIOS

9:31 PM ET

September 24, 2009

Flip-side of the COIN

Maybe because it was sponsered by the Marine Corps University and not jointly and no guest speaker invitation was tendered to our nation's alternate gun club. Or perhaps whom, the University felt was relevant, - weren't available?

 

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military for the Washington Post from 2000 through 2008.

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