Was COIN really a System Reboot?

Frank Hoffman reviews an essay by David Ucko on the systemic factors that will force the US military to forget COIN when the Iraq war is over. I think the problem goes much deeper than this. The renaissance of COIN in the US military, revived a 20th century doctrine that is simply too inflexible to handle the fluidity of modern irregular warfare. Further, the assumptions upon which this revived COIN is built upon haven't been revisited and as a result are outdated/false.

History is a great teacher, but it also lies with impunity.