Graeme Lamb Lieutenant - General Sir Graeme Cameron Maxwell Lamb , KBE , CMG , DSO ( born 21 May 1953 ) is a retired British Army officer . He is a former Commander of the Field Army at Land Command , known for his contributions to counter - insurgency . Career . Educated at Rannoch School and Royal Military Academy Sandhurst , he was commissioned into the Queen ' s Own Highlanders as a second lieutenant on 8 March 1973 . He has served in Northern Ireland and in various theatres of war including Bosnia . Lamb was promoted lieutenant on 8 September 1974 , captain on 8 March 1979 , and in 1981 he was Mentioned in Despatches for service in Northern Ireland . In the 1988 Queen ' s Birthday Honours he was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire ( MBE ) . He was promoted lieutenant - colonel on 30 December 1990 ( with seniority from 30 June 1990 ) , and commanded 1st Battalion the Queen ' s Own Highlanders from 1991 to 1993 . On 26 April 1994 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire ( OBE ) for his service in the Gulf War in 1991 , and awarded a Queen ' s Commendation for Valuable Service for operational service in Northern Ireland in 1993 . He was promoted colonel on 30 June 1994 , and brigadier on 30 June 1996 , when he was appointed Commander of 5th Airborne Brigade . He then went on to join the staff of the Joint Services Command and Staff College . From 2001 to 2003 he served as Director Special Forces . In the 2003 Queen ' s Birthday Honours he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George ( CMG ) . On 2 July 2003 he was appointed General Officer Commanding 3rd ( UK ) Mechanised Division and promoted to major general . The formation deployed to Iraq , for the Iraq War . For his service in Iraq , he was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order ( DSO ) on 23 April 2004 . In 2005 he became Director - General , Training Support and on 7 September 2006 he was deployed as Senior British Military Representative and Deputy Commanding General , Multinational Force , Iraq and promoted to lieutenant - general . In relation to this role , Lamb gave evidence to The Iraq Inquiry on 9 December 2009 in which he spoke of the shortcomings of the Coalition Provisional Authority . On 19 October 2007 he became Commander Field Army , and on 6 November received the honorary appointment of Colonel Commandant , Small Arms School Corps . He was promoted to Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire ( KBE ) in the 2009 New Year Honours . In 2009 he was also appointed an Officer in the Legion of Merit of the United States for his service in Iraq . Lamb stepped down as Commander , Field Army on 6 July 2009 , to be succeeded by Barney White - Spunner . In August 2009 it was reported that he would be heading for Afghanistan at the direct request of General David Petraeus of the US Army to head a programme designed to repeat the success of Lamb ' s efforts in Iraq whereby insurgents are persuaded to give up their arms . Lamb has described how US General Stanley A . McChrystal convinced him to join his team over dinner in Arlington , VA . By late October 2009 he had arrived in Afghanistan . He stepped down as Colonel Commandant of the Small Arms School Corps on 13 November 2009 , and officially retired from the British Army the following day , retaining a commission in the Reserve of Officers . Post - retirement . Lamb again joined McChrystal lecturing for the course , Gateway to Global Affairs , at Yale University in the fall of 2011 . Lamb serves as a " special adviser " to strategic advisory firm G3 and as director to private military company Aegis Defence Services . In March 2012 , it emerged that Lamb ' s company G3 had earlier received a £1 . 5 million contract from the government of Bahrain for " a media campaign to support the Kingdom of Bahrain ' s stance before the international community . " This led to allegations that Lamb may have been paid to praise Bahrain ' s Al Khalifa regime in public comments and written columns during the Bahraini uprising . Interests . Lamb represented Sandhurst at modern pentathlon ; won the army bobsleigh championship in 1975 , also coming fifth in the British national championship and 31st in the Nations Cup ; and is chairman of the army snowboard ing association . Lamb has been described as being " obsessively fit " and craving " adrenalin " . Personality . A " particularly aggressive general " , Lamb is said to have a " reputation for toughness " and enjoys an " easy way with soldiers " and a certain " mystique " . Although known for his " blasphemous plain speaking " and a dislike of overly intellectual ideas , friends have declared that what he most values is clarity and robustness of thought . Lamb is well known for having achieved very close working relationships with various U . S . commanders , including McChrystal . Counter - insurgency . Lamb has been credited with having exercised substantial influence over the evolution of counter - insurgency in Iraq from 2006 onwards . Recent contemporary histories of Iraq paint a favourable impression of Lamb as Senior British Military Representative ( Iraq ) , suggesting that Lamb , influenced by his experiences in Northern Ireland , convinced his U . S . colleagues to adopt the principle of " limited war " — a process requiring " patience , subtlety , and a willingness to accept that Iraqis ' own proclivities were going to drive much of the war ' s outcome " , leading to Lamb ' s own " strategic engagement initiative ' of 2006 – 7 . Lamb ' s departure in July 2007 left " a tremendous gap in the command ' s institutional memory " . As part of limited war , Lamb has emphasised the important of precision in the use of force ; he is cited as inventing the " inverse ink - spot " , which reverses the traditional ink - or oil - spot approach to counter - insurgency by attacking the middle - ranks of an insurgency movement . Other phrases associated with Lamb include the terms " reconcilable " and " irreconcilable " , as more complex alternatives to " enemy " or " insurgent " ; and the concept of a " squeeze box " to describe the effect of the pressure on ordinary Iraqis from extremists on both sides of the Shi ' a and Sunni divide . Lamb has always acknowledged the importance of targeted force in warfare ; Lamb has been quoted as describing McChrystal ' s forces in Iraq as being " absolutely essential to setting the conditions that allowed the Awakening to move forward " . Nonetheless , he has also stressed the importance of timing in the final outreach process . Lamb is quoted as suggesting that the timing of his strategic engagement initiative in Iraq was critical , stating that if " we tried to do it in mid - 2004 , it would have crashed and burned . . . [ b ] ecause at the end of the day , people hadn ’ t exercised their revenge . They hadn ’ t stood at the edge of the abyss and looked into it . " In a similar vein , Lamb has stated that " certain things were possible in 2006 that would not have been possible in 2004 or 2005 " . Interviews in 2009 with Lamb have led to him being labelled as a pragmatist in terms of tribal engagement ; he has noted that " . . . given the difficulties we were facing , the absolute inability of the Iraqis to cope themselves , and a violent insurgency that was approaching the tipping point , we really didn ' t feel we had much choice . " Bibliography .