We Are Abu Muqawama

Updated 23 June 2008.
Dear Readers, following the departure of this fine blog's namesake (better known as Andrew Exum), small-forward Charlie (aka Erin Simpson) assumed a player-manager role.

Her first task was the successful recruitment of Troy, Abu M's 6th Man. Continuing our trans-Atlantic dominance, he picks up AM's coverage of British military and COIN developments while also drawing our attention to insurgencies in South and Southeast Asia.

Stay tuned for additional draft and trade news.

Originally posted April 2008.
Dear Readers,

As some of you may have noticed, we have expanded the blogging team in recent weeks. To give you a better idea who we are and what we'll be covering, allow Abu Muqawama himself to introduce the starting five:

At power forward, Dr. iRack is a Washington-based analyst and counter-insurgency specialist who will be covering Iraq (obviously) but also COIN doctrine.

At center, Kip is an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran who focuses on Afghanistan, advising and technology. We're not telling which army -- or even which side -- Kip fought with.

At small forward, Charlie is a civilian who teaches Marines how to fight. She focuses on the inter-agency process, COIN doctrine, and all things Marine Corps. (Also, the Red Sox and Kansas University basketball.)

At shooting guard, Londonstani is a violent Pashtun (is that redundant?) from an unfashionable area of London who speaks about eight languages and focuses on the radicalization process taking place in the suburbs of Europe. He also covers al-Qaeda and corrects Abu Muqawama's Arabic. He has shared flats with Abu Muqawama on two continents now.

And running the point, Abu Muqawama handles most of the day-to-day operations of the blog and posts on everything from COIN doctrine to Hizbollah. He's from Tennessee and takes great pride in both his home state and his Scots ancestry. He has no known hobbies aside from going to church, skyping with Lady Muqawama, and watching Manchester United. Like Kip, he fought in a few wars but -- unlike Kip -- was smart enough to quit when they started getting difficult.

[See AM's farewell note, here.]