Check out this quick audio interview with George Packer about his article in this week’s issue. The article covers a maverick officer’s successful attempt to lower the amount of violence in Tal Afar, one of the insurgency’s hot spots in Iraq, through unconventional (read: non-Army doctrine) methods. This article dovetails nicely with the book I’ve been reading, which stresses the desperate need for a new style of military: smaller groups of autonomous soldiers, tasked with the simultaneous role of security, nation-building, humanitarian aid, and training, instead of large Cold War-style troop movements or Rumsfeld’s high-tech, no-troops approach.

The article isn’t online, but interview is a good start. I may have to find this book as well.