Maam, while I am generally in sympathy with the overall position on antiwar.com, in this piece you are missing a fundamental point: What Gentile and others seem to be suggesting isnt a US withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq, its a brutalization of the conflict. Their answer to the necessity of COIN seems to be the term "Limited CT (counter terrorism) wich is basically a military state without any rights for the participants, just like back in Baghdad 2004. Kick in the doors and disappear all suspects. Its low cost, but utterly uneffective. The COIN approach came out of the realization that Israeli occupation tactics dont function. What youre advocating is a return back to those bad old days.