Considering that the govt, military and various other financial interests don't particularly understand or care about counterinsurgency, except for CYA... Alleged, these being the folks whose jobs it is to be the experts and get it done aren't exactly familiar with COIN...
You have an uphill battle. Good luck, and I mean that. I've long given up. Now I get a healthy paycheck in part from supplying COIN equipment to various folks. Not to be a shrill and I'm saying it because I bloody well mean it, we're providing excellent equipment for quite reasonable prices.
The following may either inspire pride in our armed services or despair due to the hopeless state of human institutions....
Like RevDisk, my company provides HW, SW, & services to .mil. I do a lot of things, but my bread & butter is ops analysis.
I've been at it since 1999 for jfruser'scorp. In order to properly analyze HW, CONOPS, etc. and how it interacts I have had to interview servicemen on a pretty regular basis. I have it down pat, these days, and usually get my shot soon after return form overseas.
What I have seen, in addition to all sorts of other things, is an evolution of thought & practice over the years. IOW, those who make decisions and influence the conduct of operations have, over time, adapted to improve their performance vis a vis the threat they currently face.
One might say, (derisively), "Whoopie-freaking-do. How long did that take, again? And they still have their heads up their fourth point of contact WRT <insert topic du jour>. Pretty pathetic,in my opinion." One would be correct. The pace of adaptation is dog-slow. "Pathetic" is accurate.
But, "pathetic" beats the sort of (non)adaptive (non)performance we have seen in
other militaries facing similar situations. I would describe
them as "hopeless."
So, my conclusions are the following:
* The US Armed Forces are pathetic when it comes to adaptation in the face of such irregular/asymmetric enemies.
* Any other sizable military not working directly with the USA that has faced a similar foe has done so much worse as to be hopeless.
Not exactly something to get out the big ol' foam "We're Number One!" finger and wave it around with abandon. Especially when a more accurate rallying cry would be, "We suck the least!" or "We're pathetic, but you're hopeless!"
