Understanding Modern Counter – Insurgency principles; numeracy and the failure of the Iraqi military

Looking at historical conflicts it can be interpreted that unconventional strategies were always used since the beginning of warfare. Sun Tzu in his military treatise  The Art of War laid some literature foundations to the use of intelligence, spies and asymmetric advantages to overwhelm opponents. The definition of asymmetric warfare, according to English Oxford - Living -  Dictionaries is; ‘Warfare between forces unequal in size, composition, or means; specifically, warfare in which a smaller or ostensibly inferior force uses unexpected, unconventional tactics to its advantage in combating a larger or apparently superior adversary’. Unconventional and counter insurgency warfare at least in the cultural narrative differs from state to state. In America in its modern perceptual idea it is likely to remind the population of the U.S involvement in Vietnam and Afghanistan. In the Australian narrative it may remind of the East Timor crisis, in the United Kingdom; the Troubles. Counter in