Teach Yourself U.S. COIN Theory for Conventional Forces

The U.S. Army and Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Center has an 11 part series that is definitely worth skimming. The PowerPoints are accompanied by recorded lecture segments for each individual slide. The lectures are broken up as follows:

 1)  HTS COIN Intro

 2)  COIN 101 Part 1

 3)  COIN 101 Part 2

 4)  Foundations of Insurgency

 5)  Understanding The Environment

 6)  Clear Hold Build

 7)  Culture and Situational Awareness

 8)  COIN Do's and Don'ts Part 1

 9)  COIN Do's and Don'ts Part 2

10)  COIN Lessons Learned

11)  COIN Resources

12)  Audio Clips

There is a constant mentioning of "death by PowerPoint" repeated in nearly every lecture which get irritating. Other than that, it is an outstanding resource for what the U.S. military currently believes will solve the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

I could not find mention of actual COIN missions conducted by units specially trained in counterinsurgency. Probably the best example is Joint Special Operations Task Force - Philippines. The Big Army needs to get over its complex of trying to be just like Special Forces. Placing cooks into Jump School and stealing the beret are one thing, but claiming ownership over a mission as delicate as COIN is a potential recipe for disaster. Somewhere along the line the COIN lessons from Vietnam were lost.