Counterfeit COIN ops?

Lt. Matthew Cancian,
the Dave Goldich of active-duty Marines, has a good piece in the January issue of Marine Corps Gazette criticizing commanders who pretend to be
carrying out a counterinsurgency campaign without really doing it:

We go through the
motions of counterinsurgency without focusing on what really matters. This
leads to a focus on process metrics instead of outcome....We patrol in order to
be able to report hours spent patrolling.

Tom again: Anytime
you see someone focusing on their inputs (time and other resources expended)
rather than their results, you should be suspicious. This is true in civilian
life as well as in the military, I think.