An insight into counterinsurgency from the Afghanistan Milblogs

I've found some new Afghanistan milblogs thanks to this very useful resource.

• 'The word 'infantry' just doesn't seem to cover everything we do here' according to a US Infantry Platoon leader in Afghanistan. He discusses the provision of medical supplies, the role of the US Army in winning hearts and minds for the Afghan government and 'collateral damage'.

• Over at 'Bill and Bob's Excellent Afghanistan Adventure', an old hand has some new faces to look after. Some of them, he says, just don't get counterinsurgency:

'I think that he thought that he was going to be hunting Taliban every day. Snooping around the rocks, tossing grenades into every suspect cave opening and generally scaring the living hell out of everything; walking like some kind of KISS band member through quivering Afghan villages who will toss their Talibs out in the street just so that this otherworldly killing machine will be satisfied and leave them alone.'

• While LTC Rich Phillips knows that counterinsurgency can't begin until you've found a way out of your room at base...