Why Counterinsurgency Fails: The US in Iraq and Afghanistan, Tray, Dennis de. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, 133.

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Why Counterinsurgency Fails: The US in Iraq and Afghanistan is a memoir written by Dennis de Tray, a long time World Bank expert. The book describes his work in 2010 and 2011 as a member of an assessment team in Iraq and as an advisor to the 173rd Airborne Brigade combat team in Afghanistan. The book highlights the reasons of the failure of counterinsurgency campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan and proposes a solution for future US counterinsurgency campaigns by drawing lessons from Afghanistan. The author argues the benefit of routing economic assistance through the local government to build its capacity and increase its popular support. He states that the lessons learned in Iraq were then put in practice in Afghanistan by him and his colleagues.

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