In fact, some civilian elements of the government are American allies; some military elements are American enemies.
But Rohde usefully extends this account by noting that it wasn't just Bush officials who undervalued the civilian elements of American foreign policy; Washington had been doing so for decades.
But civilian elements of the elite are showing the first signs of fraying, both because they support reforms and out of growing discomfort at the security forces' brutal and ham-fisted behaviour.
Ahrar al-Sham also said there was "a gulf" between the HNC negotiating body and "the revolutionary street with all its military and civilian elements", calling its performance "weak and stumbling" while Russia and Iran were helping the government make territorial gains.
Speaking about Afghanistan in October, Gates said that "to be successful, the entirety of the Nato alliance, the European Union, NGOs, and other groups – the full panoply of military and civilian elements – must better integrate and coordinate with one another and also with the Afghan government".
Biden and those around him do not seem to believe that McChrystal's strategy can work — not because they question the abilities of the military, but because they think the generals are far too optimistic about the civilian elements upon which the overall plan depends.
Although the incidents were not on the scale of Bloody Sunday, they do suggest that, when it comes to policing operations involving civilians, elements in the army still have lots to learn.
There are also increasingly sharp divisions between China's civilian leaders and elements of the People's Liberation Army.
Three prominent dissidents said their names had mysteriously been removed from the online register of members, depriving them of the right to vote.A separate confrontation is taking place between armed civilian "collectives" and elements of the military.
By this he meant conservative civilian and military elements, whose most visible symbol was General Lavr Kornilov, a patriotic officer whom he had appointed commander in chief but soon came to see as a rival.
