COVERITLIVE.COM

11:22

Fred Barbash-Moderator -

Our guest at noon will be Dr. John Nagl, one of the top military thinkers in America and a co-author of the Army's new Counterinsurgency Field Manual. Dr. Nagl will take your questions starting at noon. You may submit in advance here. Please use a name rather than "guest" or a handle.

Dr. Nagl's impressive bio from the Center for a New American Security website:

Dr. John Nagl was appointed President of the Center for a New American Security by the Board of Directors on Friday, February 13, 2009. Prior to this position, he was a Senior Fellow at the Center. He is a Visiting Professor in the War Studies Department at Kings College of London, an Adjunct Professor in Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program, and a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Additionally, Nagl was selected as an International Affairs Fellow by the Council on Foreign Relations and is a member of the Joint Force Quarterly Advisory Committee, the French-American Foundation Young Leaders and the American Association of Rhodes Scholars.

Dr. Nagl was a Distinguished Graduate of the United States Military Academy Class of 1988 and served as an armor officer in the U.S. Army for 20 years, retiring with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. His last military assignment was as commander of the 1st Battalion, 34th Armor at Fort Riley, Kansas, training Transition Teams that embed with Iraqi and Afghan units. He led a tank platoon in Operation Desert Storm and served as the operations officer of a tank battalion task force in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He earned his doctorate from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, taught national security studies at West Point, and served as a Military Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense. Nagl also earned a Master of the Military Arts and Sciences Degree from the Command and General Staff College, where he received the George C. Marshall Award. He was awarded the Combat Action Badge by General James Mattis, USMC.

You may submit questions starting now.

11:34

Fred Barbash-Moderator - Conversation starter: Writing in the Washington Post in February, Dr. Nagl said:

General Petraeus "deserves the accolades he's won for the military turnaround in Iraq. But those successes should not distract us from the fact that the United States is engaged in a war on many fronts for which it is not properly mobilized. Iraq and Afghanistan don't just need more advisers from the Army and the Marine Corps; they need more help from the State Department and the Justice Department, too. Above all, we soldiers need the American people to understand that counterinsurgency is slow, painstaking work that requires serious patience....These will be long wars."

Dr. Nagl will be with us at noon. You're invited to submit questions in advance. Please write your name, rather than a handle or "guest."

11:59

Fred Barbash-Moderator - Dr. Nagl: Welcome and thanks so much for taking the time to do this. Thank you for the extraordinary contribution you've made to our nation's security. And welcome to all of our readers.

I'll start things off by asking you about "Triage," a report I see the Center for a New American Security, has issued, and asking you to tell us a little about its recommendations.

12:02

Dr. John Nagl - "Triage", by Nate Fick, Andrew Exum, Dave Kilcullen, and Ahmed Humayun, does two things. First, it provides metrics for measuring the success of the President's strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and second, it makes four operational recommendations for Afghanistan and Pakistan, including focusing on protecting the population in both countries and focusing on improving their security forces so that over time the countries themselves can secure their own people--our exit strategy!

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