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**Team Sergeant** · 12-06-2011, 09:27

The United States supported other countries' successful counterinsurgency campaigns in El Salvador, Colombia, and the Philippines. It did so in tiny El Salvador in the 1980s with fifty-five Special Forces trainers plus a robust country team with USAID, State, and intelligence officials who were dispersed around the country. The United States has also supported counterinsurgency campaigns in Colombia and the Philippines over the past decade with a few hundred mostly special operations forces. In all three countries, there were factors that made the job easier, but these case studies show that a small-footprint formula can work. It has a far better chance of stabilizing areas from which trouble has long emanated, at a bearable cost, than the alternatives.

Linda Robinson is the Adjunct Senior Fellow for U.S. National Security and Foreign Policy at Council on Foreign Relations, a senior writer at U.S. News & World Report, and a senior editor at Foreign Affairs magazine.

This article originally appeared at CFR.org, an Atlantic partner site.

http://www.cfr.org/afghanistan/afgha..._site-atlantic

12-06-2011, 09:27	#2
Team Sergeant Quiet Professional Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Phoenix, AZ Posts: 20,929	The United States supported other countries' successful counterinsurgency campaigns in El Salvador, Colombia, and the Philippines. It did so in tiny El Salvador in the 1980s with fifty-five Special Forces trainers plus a robust country team with USAID, State, and intelligence officials who were dispersed around the country. The United States has also supported counterinsurgency campaigns in Colombia and the Philippines over the past decade with a few hundred mostly special operations forces. In all three countries, there were factors that made the job easier, but these case studies show that a small-footprint formula can work. It has a far better chance of stabilizing areas from which trouble has long emanated, at a bearable cost, than the alternatives. Linda Robinson is the Adjunct Senior Fellow for U.S. National Security and Foreign Policy at Council on Foreign Relations, a senior writer at U.S. News & World Report, and a senior editor at Foreign Affairs magazine. This article originally appeared at CFR.org, an Atlantic partner site. http://www.cfr.org/afghanistan/afgha..._site-atlantic __________________ "The Spartans do not ask how many are the enemy, but where they are."
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