Ernest Dunlop Swinton first
published “The Defense of Duffers Drift” in 1904.[i]
Michael L. Burgoyne and Albert J. Marckwardt came along 105 years later and gave
us the modern reboot known as “The Defense of Jisr Al-Doreaa.” Both texts explain in straightforward yet
poignant terms what it means to be the invader in unfamiliar lands, and how
easy it is to fall victim the deadly trap of complacency. One would think that idea of allowing locals
to wander freely about your base, or forgetting to hire sufficient translation
staff would be rookie mistake, and that such errors would have been trained out
of our armed services well before the 21st century. Sadly, that does
not seem to be the case.
The tragic and
preventable losses that lead Burgoyne and Marckwardt to publish their updated
version are a clear sign that there is something very wrong with the way our
commanders viewed their mission in Iraq and Afghanistan. [ii] Swinton’s
words, though a little stiff for the modern tongue, were not so incomprehensible
that its lessons were unclear. Yet somehow they did not manage to stick.
Perhaps it was America’s endless preoccupation with the Russians, or the
resounding defeat of Saddam during the First Gulf War, but somewhere along the
way the United States got cocky. It forgot how to fight a real honest to goodness
ground war, the kind where fighter jets and long range missiles can only get
you so far, and the real work has to be done on the ground, cheek to jowl with
the enemy and in an environment that is far from hospitable.
One would think
that Commanders would have learned a thing or two about COIN since the time of
Duffers Drift, perhaps in Vietnam.,but apparently those lessons didn’t stick
either. What will it take for the most common sense ideas to be incorporated
into basic military policy and curricula? Does every trainee need to recite “The
Defense of Duffers Drift” from memory before being awarded his commission?
Probably not, but adding a few more cultural awareness classes into the mix
wouldn’t hurt. America is the most prosperous nation in the world. It can
afford to teach its soldiers which way to shake hands and how not to insult the
chieftain’s daughter.
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