Besides the obvious OPSEC concerns of the post, I will simply address the IED issue.

The insurgents have always stayed one step ahead of us on the issue. While it's not a secret any longer that we employ ECM to interrupt IED's, there are plenty of ways around it and it's never very long before insurgents find that.

I also continue to be disturbed at the Army's "defensive" mindset. It's always about armor and countermeasures. What ever happened to good ol' offensive know-how? Why not emplace sniper teams covertly and let them sit on MSR's for several days with ROE's that allow them to prosecute any targets after curfew. During daylight, they would be allowed to prosecute targets that would, say, be fiddling around the sides of the road. Coupled with an effective PSYOP campaign to promote civilian non-interference and exploit the deaths of IED-emplacement teams, this could be very effective in mitigating the IED threat.