Jedburgh,
It is on this point of squad leaders talking ideology that we disagree. Most ideology is fed - not forced as in at the tip of a gun - but fed. That is why Arabs are the way they are we are the way we are.

Foreigners do not have to buy our ideology wholesale. If we explain it - in terms that are meaningful to them (which is the other side of my first post) - they will be more receptive to all of our Actions.

We do not have to argue with Arabs. We must discuss, we must engage about God, family, individualism. If squad leaders can not tell them that they are the descendants of Ishamel and we are the descendents of Issac so we are therefore brothers, that squad leader is untrained.

Although Genesis 16 says that God cursed Ishmael and he will hate everyone and everyone will hate him is a point that we do not have to bring up.

If squad leaders can not sit and talk with Iraqis and explain that we understand their dilemma of not knowing how to balance being Arab, Muslim and western - in that I mean live under secular law and move to a more individual based economy instead of a family one - because we are all immigrants and our ancestors faced the same problems - he is untrained.

Your old soldier friend probably didn't want to get into these ideas because he was, well, old. He was of the obsolete mindset that says soldiers kill people and break things. We are here to use kinetic force or "win hearts and minds" if you are a SOF type.

It is impossible to win hearts and minds unless you can look a man in the eyes and explain to him how the two of you are in the same boat and on the same journey with God, family and nation.

On the modern battlefield - this is the one after Korea - the most important fight is the war of ideas. Killing people, breaking things, healing folks and building stuff fall under the umbrella of working toward a unified ideological goal. As with previous generations of warfare, things are becoming more decentralized and it is now on the shoulders of our smallest tactical unit - the squad - to engage people at EVERY LEVEL simulateously.

Your proposed system of just focus on ACTIONS - the one that we have been at for 45 years - HOW IS IT WORKING???