David Kilcullen is imminently qualified to write an important and incisive piece on the war on terror, being one of Petraeus' top advisors in crafting the surge on the ground and a former Australian Army officer and scholar who fought in Timor and studied CI extensively. In the Accidental Guerilla he attempts to draw together lessons from his experiences ranging from studying in rural Indonesia (where he encounters likely Al-Qaeda affiliates who are definitely ethnic Arab and not local) to long tours in both Afghanistan and Iraq. His book is an attempt to understand the global phenomenon of radical takfiri extremism/terrorism, explain what has worked in Afghanistan and Iraq in contrast to what hasn't, discern general principles for counter-insurgency and "imposing" effective governance on essentially tribal societies, and at least proffer examples of what not to do in the strategic context of the war on terror. As a pre-cautionary note the book is very uneven in tone, ranging from polished text to pages on pages of raw field notes, to rough thoughts, to attempts to write Tom Clancy action sequences. It is poorly edited and feels extremely rushed, but given the timeliness of the information I concur with its current publishing as it is far more important to get this information out today than to make it a little more easy to read tomorrow.
The phenomenon at the heart of Kilcullen's book is something he has witnessed throughout his travels in the muslim world at war. It is a trend centered on an ideological cadre of hardcore radical Islamic fighters that he identifies as "takfiri" to try to paint them, accurately it would seem, in a term that non extremist muslims can understand, dislike, and distinguish themselves from rather than a more amorphous and ambiguous "Islamic terrorist," of which Al-Qaeda would be a core group but not the only one. These vanguards enter poorly governed, socially rent apart areas and start a cycle of violence to try to achieve their aims of local control, eventually to piece together a caliphate bit by bit throughout Islam and beyond. Their tactic is to cause chaos, invite foreign (whatever is perceived locally as foreign, be it Americans in Afghanistan or non-Pashtun Pakistani troops in the NWFP) response, and get the locals to unite with them against the new "common enemy." Thus the locals, most of whom just want to be left alone but share an ethnic tie (particularly amongst Pashtun) or religious tie with the extremists, and usually live in tribal societies with a distinct code of honor, become "accidental guerillas" fighting the foreigners locally and inadvertently in support of the extremist's global cause. He does a particularly good job explaining the mechanics of how this phenomenon works in Afghanistan and how the Taliban uses it to gain control of regions. Combine the global terrorists, with the local guerillas, and add narco-criminal financing (i.e. poppies in Afghanistan, corruption/protection money in many countries, etc.) and you have what he calls "Hybrid War" something that goes beyond mere stovepipes of counter-terror, counter-insurgency, and counter-narcotics. Al-Qaeda believes it can use this strategy to morally, physically and financially exhaust the US and West by bogging it down in interventions that only sap them on strength while creating more accidental guerillas who wouldn't exist outside of those interventions.
Kilcullen is at his best in the roughly first third of his book where he uses the case study of a road construction project in Afghanistan to show an example of how allied forces can use processes to partner with locals and cause their rejection of the takfiris. Although the Romans used road building in conquered lands to logistically and practically be able to introduce governance and to bring new subject peoples into the empire, Kilcullen's focus is on finding a local dynamic that the Allies can exploit that will benefit the locals demonstrably and decisively more than allying with the takfiris. This does not always mean road building per se, nor does it mean not fighting as ultimately routing out the takfiris and protecting the population will be step one. It's the process of once you've cleared an area, developing the local civil society to a point where, although they will not likely become a flowering democracy, they will reject further takfiri intervention and withstand some form of government security (which lacks in many parts of the world, be it Pakistani frontiers, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, etc.)
His second third of the book focuses on the surge in Iraq and what was done to turn the situation there around. If you haven't read much about the surge this is obviously a good place to go for a decent synopsis of what happened and why. If you want to know more about the surge though I found "The Strongest Tribe" by Bing West to contain much the same information, with more detail, and with a more readable format.
The book ends with the author's experiences in Timor showing that the Accidental Guerilla syndrome is a tactic that has been used outside the Islamic world and which can be dealt with successfully, although the example falls a little flat as Timor appears far less virulent than the problems the world now faces in Afghanistan, Yemen and other places. It also ends with his main strategic advice, which is mostly negative rather than positive. He has great rules and guidelines on what to do once in a place like Afghanistan or Iraq, but his end advice basically says to avoid more Iraqs rather than what to do.
Although not perfect, this is extremely important and insightful information from a man who has a track record that speaks for him absolutely. A must read for anyone interested in what is going on in the War on Terror.
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Book is good, but advertised as great condition which it was far from it.
Was advertised as great condition, NEW looking. Some pages the previous owner scribbled and marked out full paragraphs with multiple markers. Waste of money. 😡
Top reviews from other countries
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in the United Kingdom on December 20, 2016
... academic research and combat experience makes Kilcullens' book the best book I have read on counterinsurgency in the post ..
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