Anyone closely following the Iraq war has run across the name David Kilcullen, an Australian who helped Gen. Patraeus develop the counter-insurgency practices now in use. Kilcullen is writing a field manual for the Pentagon that takes his ideas far beyond the field and right up into the national policy level. It’s interesting to read his summation of the Iraq adventure:

“The biggest stupid idea,” Kilcullen said, “was to invade Iraq in the first place.”

He believes following his manual would avoid future Iraq-like episodes. The New Yorker published an interesting profile of Kilcullen in 2006.