Great read. I printed it up and added it to my "COIN notebook" that I'm building.

I remember an incident from when I was there... I had been there for about two or three weeks when we accompanied our supported unit on a knock-and-search operation. In one house, we were moving the women into one room and a young woman was blocking a doorway. One of the soldiers touched her to get her to move towards the room where the women were being placed. She moved, but had this look of horror and indignation on her face. I talked to the soldier's squad leader about it and he gaffed it off... I was the new TPT chief and, not wanting to poison the relationship with my supported unit, I said nothing more about it. But I knew that, if there were no insurgents or sympathizers in that house before, there would be now.

I don't know if thorough cultural training and language training are necessary for EVERY soldier, but I believe at the very least line leaders need thorough indoctrination in it... and their leaders need to be watchful for the "cowboys" who gaff it off and don't take it seriously.... and remove them from the equation before they do any harm.

At this point though, I think the whole discussion is really academic. The mistakes made at all levels in Iraq are irreversible at this point (I believe), but I hope the Army really does a THOROUGH evaluation of what went wrong and apply the lessons for the next time... because there will be a next time.