U.S. Special Operations Command Chief : Counterinsurgency Ops Should 'Involve Countering the Insurgents'

The U.S. military's counterinsurgency tactics increasingly place too much emphasis on protecting local peoples and not enough on fighting enemy forces, said U.S. Special Operations Command chief Adm. Eric Olson.

While the U.S. military has adopted a population-focused strategy in Afghanistan, Olson said, he "fears counterinsurgency has become a euphemism for nonkinetic activities."

The term is now to often used to describe efforts aimed at "protecting populations," Olson said during a conference in Arlington, Va.

The military's top special operator, in a shot across the bow of modern-day counterinsurgency doctrine proponents, then added: "Counterinsurgency should involve countering the insurgents."

Olson also made clear he thinks U.S. laws give him the authority to craft and implement doctrine for America's special operators.

Olson said doctrine is important for fighting wars, and "should be carefully written - but we should not fall in love with it."

In a blunt statement, Olson called "COIN doctrine an oxymoron."

That's because "almost none" of what the doctrine contains is "actually applied" during military operations, he said.

Olson pointed to parts of the current counterinsurgency doctrine that is based on U.S. military efforts in certain provinces of Iraq. Those tactics rarely apply anywhere in Afghanistan, he said.

"It is an imperfect template from which we must deviate," Olson said to a silent room.

His comments came 24 hours after Garry Reid, deputy assistant secretary of defense for special operations and combat terrorism, told the conference that Defense Secretary Robert Gates wants the entire military to adopt counterinsurgency standards "in line" with those applied in Afghanistan by Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. forces there.

Gates on May 24 signed a directive ordering the services and military components to "take McChrystal's COIN training and proficiency standards ... and adapt those or the whole force," Reid said.

The idea is to take the kinds of COIN training and "proficiency" standards McChrystal implemented there with his "AfPak Hands" program. The "Hands" effort was formally launched last fall.

A Joint Staff fact sheet calls it a language and cultural immersion effort under which U.S. forces gain skills to help them carry out counterinsurgency missions. Military officials have made gaining the trust and support of local populations in Afghanistan a cornerstone of the ongoing allied mission there - AfPak Hands is aimed at bolstering that.

Olson told Defense News the secretary's guidance must be implemented in a way that incorporates "a SOF flavor."

"There is a special operations flavor of COIN that is up to us to adjust to within the context of Gen. McChrystal and the secretary of defense's guidance," he said.

Olson also made clear whom he feels should write doctrine for the military's specops forces.

"Frankly," he said, "it is a legislative requirement for the commander of Special Operations Command to craft doctrine for special operations forces."