When I first started working with the Iraqi helicopter pilots down at Taji, I wrote a few posts about their experiences, their views, their concerns -- and one of them struck a chord with a reader who saw it as something other than just an interesting story.
Question: how would you answer a request from an ally who asked permission to use something you wrote for a publication to be distributed at multi-governmental level?
Yer darned right...
Those of you in the business of writing professional papers know the process -- research, source verification and attribution, peer review, vetting by Higher Authority, et cetera. The end product has to bear scrutiny similar to an application for a TS clearance. I read the initial draft and was impressed, and there's a short list of things that impress me.
Something else impressed me when I read the Tech Memo -- the references cite almost as many electronic sources as print ones.
Defenselink. Pajamas Media. Wired. Long War Journal.
Bloggers -- okay, Milbloggers, anyway -- are respected as authoritative sources. That says worlds about the credibility we've earned in such a short time and the responsibility we take for the accuracy of what we post.
And if we're fact-checked and found wanting, you can watch as we eat every mouthful of the crow sandwich -- we don't bury the correction or apology below the fold on page 12. You won't *let* us.
You guys help keep us on The Path. *All* of you -- Denizens and Denizennes, Family and Extended Family, Commenters, Contrarians, Casual Readers, and Lurkers-Who-Pop-from-Behind-the-Drapes.
The Tech Memo is here -- it's less than a meg, and *right-click, save-as* is the fastest way to download it.
If you're a policymaker or a policy-executer, you've probably already got it.
If you're not, here's your chance to read what they're reading...
Dear Mr. Tuttle,
I am writing to seek your permission to quote your 14 May blog post, entitled “Hussayn’s Story”, in its entirety as an Annex to a technical memorandum (TM) I am presently preparing. The TM is entitled “ ‘The graduate level of war’: Transforming US COIN Strategy 2006-07”, and it is focussed on looking at two questions: evaluating how FM 3-24 differed in substance from the documents it superseded; and examining the extent to which the new document informed General Petraeus’ design and execution of the ‘surge’ operations conducted between June and December 2007, that have had such a remarkable impact on security in Iraq. It is hoped that this paper will prove useful to planners in our Department of National Defence charged with crafting our national efforts in Afghanistan.
Based on my research to date, the most important aspect of General Petraeus’ strategic concept appears to have been a combination of movement of ground forces to forward operating bases and the adoption of aggressive, low-level patrolling, combined with counter-insurgent combat operations informed by intelligence gleaned from the re-establishment of intimate contacts between US/Iraqi forces and the citizens of the communities they were assigned to protect. “Hussayn’s Story” is an excellent illustration of why this approach was so important, and has proven so effective.
If you give me permission to reproduce your post, I will do so without editing it (except to make it fit into our publication template), and with full credit to your site, including citing the URL in my footnotes. My team’s publications emerge as Government of Canada academic documents, and thus this would constitute a “not for profit” use – but I would be happy to send you .pdf and/or hard copies of my paper when it is eventually published.
I look forward to hearing from you when time permits. Whatever your decision, I wish you all the best, and keep up the great work.
//Don//
[name redacted to discourage spambots], Ph.D.
Strategic Analyst
Centre for Operational Research and Analysis
Defence Research and Development Canada
[address and e-mail addy redacted]
Question: how would you answer a request from an ally who asked permission to use something you wrote for a publication to be distributed at multi-governmental level?
Yer darned right...
Don,
Permission granted, with pleasure. BTW, "Bill" is the preferred moniker.
Hussayn is a pseudonym, for obvious reasons. Background, not for publication, please: [redacted]. He and his family are also al-Q targets and any published account citing his name would put him higher on the hit list.
A .pdf will be perfect -- could we return the favor and post / link to it when it's published?
Bill
Those of you in the business of writing professional papers know the process -- research, source verification and attribution, peer review, vetting by Higher Authority, et cetera. The end product has to bear scrutiny similar to an application for a TS clearance. I read the initial draft and was impressed, and there's a short list of things that impress me.
Dear Bill,
Please find attached my Tech Memo on COIN Strategy and the distribution memo that goes with it.
...Regardless of how fast we analysts may write, between section head reviews, peer reviews, chief scientist reviews and the interminable publication process, there’s a lot of time between my final keystroke and the thing actually hitting the streets.
Regardless, I wanted to thank you once again for giving me permission to use your blog post, “Hussayn’s Story”. I greatly appreciate it.
Feel free to do whatever you like with the attached document; it’s unclassified and, as you’ll note from the distribution memo, is being distributed outside Canada and government. I’m not aware of any copyright issues with your posting a link to it on your website. It’s not on our website yet (that’ll take a few weeks at least, I would think), but if you like, I’ll send you the URL once it goes up.
All the best, and once again, many thanks.
//Don//
Something else impressed me when I read the Tech Memo -- the references cite almost as many electronic sources as print ones.
Defenselink. Pajamas Media. Wired. Long War Journal.
Bloggers -- okay, Milbloggers, anyway -- are respected as authoritative sources. That says worlds about the credibility we've earned in such a short time and the responsibility we take for the accuracy of what we post.
And if we're fact-checked and found wanting, you can watch as we eat every mouthful of the crow sandwich -- we don't bury the correction or apology below the fold on page 12. You won't *let* us.
You guys help keep us on The Path. *All* of you -- Denizens and Denizennes, Family and Extended Family, Commenters, Contrarians, Casual Readers, and Lurkers-Who-Pop-from-Behind-the-Drapes.
The Tech Memo is here -- it's less than a meg, and *right-click, save-as* is the fastest way to download it.
If you're a policymaker or a policy-executer, you've probably already got it.
If you're not, here's your chance to read what they're reading...
Ummmm -- Thank You?
The mere fact that the COIN report references blogs is truly amazing- talk about an accomplishment!
Cheers
Thanks Mr. Neill, for noticing the good talent that hang around these here parts.
Way to go Unkabill!
Around more *Villainous* places he's known as Thong Jockey - Legend in His Own Mind.
*snicker*
0>;~}
My nefarious plan is succeeding -- 27 inches at a time...
"William Tuttle": who .....? Not 'Little Willie'?
Still determined to sneak Armor into the conversation every chance he gets...