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On Threats Watch:
On Route Michigan
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In war, the ability to adapt to the enemy’s tactics is crucial to maintaining the initiative. The insurgency in Iraq does not have the ability to defeat the Coalition using conventional means; in every engagement at the platoon size or greater, the insurgency has been thoroughly defeated. Because of this, the insurgency adapted its tactics and relying on a political defeat of the largest Coalition partner, the United States, to achieve victory.
The two main tactics the insurgency has used are suicide bombs, which almost exclusively are executed by al-Qaeda in Iraq, and Improvised Explosive Devices. The suicide bombs make for stories of carnage and chaos, but often evoke a backlash from the Iraqi people and rarely kill American troops. IEDs, however, are the main cause of casualties among U.S. personnel. The insurgency’s hope is the steady trickle of deaths and injuries from IEDs will erode the will of the American public and cause the government to prematurely withdraw from Iraq...
A Shift in Operations
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If you have a discussion with military officers in Western Anbar Province about the current and future status of military operations in the region, invariably the conversation will lead you to the reconstruction efforts of the Coalition. The phrases “switching from kinetic to non-kinetic operations” or “moving from kinetic operations to reconstruction” are often voiced.
Just the other day while at Al Asad Air base, I joined a group of senior staff officers of Regimental Combat Team – 2 in mid conversation at dinner, and the topic of the discussion was reconstruction efforts in a small strategic city in Anbar. Their concerns were the state of a water treatment plant, the status of schools and assisting in rebuilding them, electric power generation, and other mundane municipal issues. While these topics may seem less than glamorous to military officers, they astutely recognize their importance in countering the insurgency...
