Originally Posted by
Sargent
"....don’t train on finding the enemy; train on finding your friends and they will help you find your enemy."
As was pointed out to me recently, the Coalition forces in Fallujah had hit or found over 50 IEDs in a period of a month/six weeks -- for the local population the number was zero. Obviously they have info, and obviously they are not passing it along. They don't trust the Coalition forces or the Iraqis being trained up... yet. Whether they ever will is another question. That outcome seems in serious doubt as now, in a move similar to the one that killed the CAP in Vietnam, the advisory/transition mission is being squashed in favor of the "security" mission -- read that as the let's kill a lot of insurgents plan.
I wish someone would learn what real counterinsurgency was, because that's what this larger, global fight is about. We should have "hospital bombs" (an air-dropped hospital in a box with a telephone number to call for personnel, supplies, and assistance) not bunker busters, "subtlety and nuance" not "shock and awe." This is a battle for the great undecided -- the true believers will never change their minds, but they are irrelevant. What we need to do is make the context in which the insurgents (both in Iraq and elsewhere) operate utterly untenable. Making the locals happy -- wherever they are -- is how you do that. Making the locals trust you is the key.
As harsh as this is to say, the fact that so many fewer Americans are dying than Iraqis is a problem. I get to say that because I've got a loved one in the crosshairs as I type this. And if it meant changing the minds of one Iraqi family, I'd sacrifice him. Because that family would tell their relatives, and you'd start to see a snow-ball effect. The fact that so many (but certainly not all -- don't get me started on _that_) American troops are leading a life of luxury compared to the Iraqis is another huge problem. Unfortunately, you can't care more about your own people than the locals in an insurgency, not in this day and age. If Americans can't stomach that, then we need to stay out of these things.
At some point I'll share my completely unorthodox view of counterinsurgency.