Article on Troop Levels for Successful COIN?

[Noble713]

I know sometime in the past month we have had multiple debates on the number of troops needed for Iraq, and drew upon previous counter-insurgency ops as a guide. In at least one of these threads, there may have been a link to an article in one of these, which included graphs of troop levels for Ireland, East Timor, Malaya, etc. and compared them to troop levels in Iraq. Despite my best efforts I can't seem to find this thread or article. Can anyone point me in the right direction? I need it for an assignment.

[Jedburgh]

Not precisely what you are asking for, however, RAND published a couple of good studies related to the question:

America's Role in Nation-Building: From Germany to Iraq (http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1753/) looks at Germany, Japan, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan in the context of what worked and what didn't. Troop levels are one of the aspects that is considered in the case studies.

Establishing Law and Order After Conflict (http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2005/RAND_MG374.pdf) looks in detail at Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo, and compares these situations with Panama, El Salvador, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, and East Timor. Again, troop levels are one aspect of the many factors looked at in their analysis.

[Noble713]

ooooo, this is good too, thanks.