Bill, I'm not sure this came out right...curious if you meant something else.


A technique he offered was to order the population to do certain tasks to teach them that the coalition is in charge, because our orders would give them an excuse for working with the coalition, so hopefully they would be killed by the insurgents.
Both you and Mike are on the same vein that I've been before in trying to make peers understand part of the problem with civilian compliance/support. There are parts of Iraq that are like Little Italy. The residents know that the police cannot be everywhere and at all times, so they are not going to go against the mob and provide information.

Hence the sharp rise of powerful militias to protect neighborhoods (and whichonly require the right trigger to become sectarian thugs). Our inability to provide a security blanket, through whatever policy failure you want to pick, perhaps gave rise to the militias for two reasons.

1) There was an identified need for militia protection NOW and potentially for the future.

2) There was a forecasted need for militia protection as the coalition eventually reduced its footprint.

Anyone have a data source for the size and number of militias, and any recorded increases in the 2002-present time frame?