Are we securing the people?

[Strickland]

I do not believe we properly secure the people of Iraq against insurgent retribution. In order to win, we must get actionable intelligence. In order to get the intel, we've got to make the people feel safe giving it to us. In order to make them feel safe, we've got to be able to respond quickly if an informant is in danger. We've got to foster a climate of safety in the neighborhoods. I believe that by living on FOBs, detached from the people, we fail to do this. We should be living in the towns and cities in platoon sized elements, with Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police platoons attached to each US platoon. Intelligence is not processed through a lumbering S-2 chain, but passed directly to the platoon leaders on their cell phones, the numbers to which will be common knowledge amongst the people. Flex whatever patrol is out at the time to investigate. This company size element would be like the local police precinct. Comments?

This was the original question/quote from this thread. Upon review, I have the following comments: 1. There were 872 American KIA in Iraq in 2004. (iraq has a total population of 26 million) 2. There were 1360 homicides in Texas in 2004. (Texas has a population of 21 million) 3. Most of the Iraqi provinces are relatively safe; however, just as with Harlem, SE DC, South-Central LA, East St Louis, and others, there are certainly places in the US that ARE NOT SAFE. While we have too few troops in Iraq to provide the appropriate level of security, we should not forget that to most outsiders, US crime figures generate a perception of "civil war."

[sabers8th]

I was in Al Anbar in 03-04 with the Army which was subsequently relieved by the Marines. Since leavign have followed the area of and on since leaving. I hae read articles about the employment of the CAP platoons there but they seem to be overshadoewd by reoccurent Operations to pacify the area that the MArines have seem to lost complete control of... I am not saying we did a outstanding job but if you compare the casualty figures from our entire stay in Iraq to the Marines first month look something like this. Army 3 KIA with @ 100 WIA for one unit compared to Marines 10 KIA first month and 60 serious WIA first month. When we were relieved by the Marines the overall impression from myself is that they really did not have ahandle with what was going on there...... And unfortunately they paid for it. My 2 cents being a former 0311 it was very dissapointing to see them like that.