ARTICLE: Integrating COIN into Army Professional Education, by Major Niel Smith, Small Wars Journal, December 3, 2009

Good read on crucial issue:

In the eight years since the invasion of Afghanistan, the U.S. Army has failed to integrate counterinsurgency (COIN) into Professional Military Education (PME). Counterinsurgency instruction remains uneven in quantity and quality throughout Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) institutions, which have failed to define standards, competencies and outcomes for COIN education. This lack of consistency contributes to ongoing operational confusion and poor execution of operations in both Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom due to lack of common concept of what counterinsurgency is and what it entails, despite great advances in COIN application and execution by troops in the field.

Changing professional military education ensures a lasting shift in the direction of small wars/SysAdmin ops, because a permanent constituency is created. Just like Gates said his last budget created a "home" for this sort of warfighter, the same space needs to be carved out within PME for such training.