Don't leave counter-insurgency to the military.

AuthorSmith, Haviland
PositionEssay

Editor's Note: A retired CIA official and frequent contributor to this journal, gives us some advice on how not to conduct counter-insurgency operations.--Ed.

The old saw tells us "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter". But that really isn't true. A terrorist is a terrorist and an insurgent, or freedom fighter, is an insurgent. If we are able to stick to labeling them on the basis of what they actually do, rather than what we think they represent, we will be able to keep them straight and stand a much better chance of dealing effectively with terrorism.

Insurgencies are movements designed to overthrow existing governments. Some are popular and have pretty good prospects for success. Some are not. Generally they spring from within populations. If they are successful, it is because they generally represent the population's views and thus have their support. That makes them very difficult to defeat, particularly by a foreign government.

It is extremely difficult to define "terrorism" largely because it is such an emotional subject. The United Nations has been unable to do so. Having said that, there are certain characteristics that are helpful in identifying terrorists. They use violence and asymmetrical warfare as their primary tools. They are not typically organized like insurgencies, but rather resemble politically oriented covert action groups. They use their terror psychologically for maximum impact to intimidate populations rather than simply kill individuals. Finally, they are non-state groups.

Historically, governments have been far more successful against terrorist groups than they have been against insurgencies, primarily because insurgencies tend to enjoy more support from local populations

Today's American foreign and domestic counterterrorism policies have been built on the "Global War on Terror" or (GWOT). The Bush Administration labeled everyone it didn't like a "terrorist", never taking the time to differentiate between terrorism and insurgency. That was our first mistake. The Taliban, despite the fact that it commits terrorist acts, is essentially an insurgent organization. Yet, until recently, they were constantly referred to as terrorists, perhaps because we needed terrorists for our GWOT in an Afghanistan where there were hardly any Al Qaeda members left. Even though Afghans generally hate Taliban policies, and with good reason, they will often chose them over us if they are forced to do so. We are, after all, the foreigners in the fracas.

Our second mistake was in deciding to "solve" our terrorism problems...

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