IO: Marines Battle Rumor Mill in Iraq

[Tom Odom]

Populations ARE key terrain in COIN and UW. Until the war for influence, information, and ideology is given a footing more equal to the "shooting" war, we will not be successful in the GWOT.

HOOAH!

From my essay in SWJ Magazine Vol 5:

5. Civilians on the battlefield in counter insurgency are not only part of the battlefield; they are the objective. There are no collateral casualties. All non-insurgent casualties are friendly.

I gave a couple of lectures on COIN in Rwanda over the past couple of months, and lesson #5 as stated above, typically generated much discussion. Collateral casualties as a term is very much a conventional warfare metric to my mind. As long as we separate out casulties in the population as a 3rd category, it makes it nearly impossible to understand the secondary and tertiary effects such casualties generate. As a non-law enforcement type, it seems to me that in applying lethal we have to begin to look at it more as a police scenario.

Best

Tom

[Mondor]

I am going to take JCUSTIS's advice and start a thread on Marine/Naval Psyop in the Equipment and Capabilities section.

[ilots]

Collateral casualties as a term is very much a conventional warfare metric to my mind. As long as we separate out casulties in the population as a 3rd category, it makes it nearly impossible to understand the secondary and tertiary effects such casualties generate.

Though very difficult to address, I would certainly agree that there are few greater "force multipliers" for an actual insurgency than collateral damage of non-combatants &/or tactics which are perceived as disproportionately employed against a civilian population.

[979797]

ilots, the events themselves are not force multipliers in and of themselves... it is the way in which the insurgent exploits it... and this takes a savvy approach and understanding of IO and PSYOP. Same goes for countering/spinning it. Not all events over there are being exploited by the insurgents. We also are doing a mediocre job (at best) at countering enemy IO.

Someone brought up a point earlier about "police operations" and lethal effects. I believe (and have touted it in another board) that our LACK OF non-lethal options compounds our problems in COIN and IO.

[ilots]

ilots, the events themselves are not force multipliers in and of themselves....

As I stated, difficult to address (given the nature of short forum posts) and you should also note my use of quotations. BUT for the sake of argument, while not planned PSYACTS by the enemy, such actions do affect the behavior of a specific audience w/out exploitation by the enemy (although they are very well versed enhancing and creating such effects.) With out ANY action taken by the enemy, the use of what is perceived as disproportionate response against the civilian population will de-legitimize our actions and "enhance" our enemies capability to conduct an insurgency; hence my use of "force multiplier." This is especially true given the role of "legitimacy" in COIN (and CT/AT.)