The "three block war" is terminology used in counterinsurgency(COIN) similar to clear-hold-build or kinetic-nonkinetic.
Who knows everything there is to know and more about counterinsurgency and its current role in US Military strategy?
The COINdinistas
Although Nagl is listed #2 to Petraeus, since he was the teacher, he is really #1.
If you want to read the nuts and bolts of COIN, follow those links to Small Wars and Abu Muqawama
You are trying to make an important point here, and I wish you luck. The neocons who hang around here have no patience for using their brains to try to figure out what we are trying to do in the world. They just want to blow stuff up and kill people. That is why Bush and his crowd are out. Remember, we only got Petraeus in charge of Iraq in the latter years after we had tried everything else.
Using brains is so un-American.