This manual is designed to fill a doctrinal gap. It has been 20 years since the Army published a field manual devoted exclusively to counterinsurgency operations. For the Marine Corps it has been 25 years. With our Soldiers and Marines fighting insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is essential that we give them a manual that provides principles and guidelines for counterinsurgency operations. Such guidance must be grounded in historical studies. However, it also must be informed by contemporary experiences.
USMC Small Wars Center of Excellence
In their Own Words: Reading the Iraqi Insurgency International Crisis Group, Middle East Report. No. 50, 15 February 2006.
Training Indigenous Forces in Counterinsurgency: A Tale of Two Insurgencies, James S. Corum, Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College, March 2006.