@smallwars, 9/10/10 20:14

This is spot on. The Sri Lankan ability to isolate their opponents was far more critical than the amount of force applied.  

Small Wars Journal (@smallwars)
9/10/10 20:14
This Week at War: If Mexico Is at War, Does America Have to Win It? http://bit.ly/bTIQDN


"Those who object to the coldblooded "Sri Lankan Way" remind us that the Soviet Union's brutal campaign in Afghanistan did not result in victory. But the real lesson of the Sri Lankan campaign is not the level of brutality employed by the counterinsurgents, but rather the ability of the counterinsurgents to isolate the battlefield from all outside support and influence."

Mistaken as an Iranian Martyr, Then Hounded - NYTimes.com

“Both sides have destroyed my life, the Western media and the Iranian intelligence.... But I still have the hope that at least the media will realize what they have done.”

http://nyti.ms/9HORSx

Targeted Killing vs COIN?

The dilemma: it takes a large footprint on the ground to develop the information and provide the infrastructure to support the Special Operations campaign. So, in the end, I don't think either approach can stand alone.
From The New York Times:

Targeted Killing Is New U.S. Focus in Afghanistan

http://nyti.ms/cAPltk

Article: Mexican Officials Say Prisoners Acted as Hit Men - NYTimes.com

Ouch. That's some serious corruption:

Mexican Officials Say Prisoners Acted as Hit Men - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/world/americas/26mexico.html?_r=1&src=twt&twt=nytimes

Ballistics studies confirmed that four guns used in the shooting were the same as those assigned to jail guards, Mr. Nájera said.

Fake femme fatale shows social network risks - Computerworld

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9179507/Fake_i_femme_fatale_i_shows_so...

 

I especially liked this part: "I was never able to friend anyone from the CIA or the FBI. I tried. It just didn't work. Toward the end of the experiment, there was this massive influx of Arabs from overseas that were trying to get on the Robin page where all the military stuff was. I didn't really care for it. That was a bit scary."

"Bridging the Digital Divide" isn't a matter solely of providing technology or bandwidth...

Digital Domain - Computers at Home - Educational Hope vs. Teenage Reality - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/business/11digi.html?_r=1

I liked the article's finish, even if I don't like the results achieved from providing the technology:

"When devising ways to beat school policing software, students showed an exemplary capacity for self-directed learning. Too bad that capacity didn’t expand in academic directions, too."

Quick downfall from a poorly-chosen Tweet

From the NYTimes:

"CNN on Wednesday removed its senior editor of Middle Eastern affairs, Octavia Nasr, after she published a Twitter message saying that she respected the Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah."

Interesting to see the sort of trouble one can get in now that personal opinions can be passed so rapidly across the Internet. Leads one to wonder, of course, how many other journos harbor similar ideas and have just been smart enough not to express them publicly. Look how long it took to catch up with Helen Thomas.

Yep. They don't have the burden of running the state...

...just the benefits of sharing its monopoly on the use of force. 

From the CSMonitor:

“The cartels don't seek a failed state. Rather they want ‘dual sovereignty’ – that is, to pay off public officials in return for their closing their eyes to criminality” - George W. Grayson

http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/top/~3/kNzEHP2SyHY/Rodolfo-Torre-Cantu-assassination-Why-are-drug-cartels-killing-Mexican-candidates

Assassins...?

I think you've earned something more than the term "assassins" once you're conducting sophisticated ambushes vs. gov't security forces:

"In the mountainous state of Michoacan west of Mexico City, mafia assassins blocked a major highway with buses and ambushed a convoy of federal police returning to the capital, killing 12 officers and wounded at least eight."

http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=5ff723e9da5e5847fc5e43333812b6b8

​