U.S. Army Spc. Nathaniel Small, 29, from Rockland, Maine,  of 4th Battalion,

U.S. Army Spc. Nathaniel Small, 29, from Rockland, Maine, of 4th Battalion, 25th Field Artillery Regiment, based at Fort Drum, N.Y., smokes before a joint patrol with Afghan soldiers in the Jalrez Valley in Afghanistan's Wardak Province on Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009

(AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

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A little CI comment gleaned from one small AP photo:

How can an artilleryman without his artillery piece be of any consequence in a Counterinsurgency environment? These individuals are not trained for COIN, nor do they understand it.

The number of new soldiers being assigned to Afghanistan is meaningless if those soldiers are not trained for in-theatre considerations. Numbers do not always yield the result one expects.

If it's a true COIN war, let's stick with Special Operations Forces. Saying these actions are COIN is a fiction, however, which is why artillerymen are being employed.

The Army lacks the assets to achieve its elusive goals.