Techniques for securing and building relations with the people...

[Maximus]

All, thanks for the feedback thus far. Maphu, incredible insight from someone who's done similar things in a conflict that's similar in many ways.

I forgot to mention that, in my mind, such a technique can only work if you already live among the people. By this I mean our firm bases or joint security stations need to be inside villages/towns, not on the periphery as most were for the first 3 years of OIF. Otherwise, the families will most definitely pay a heavy price for our moving in; it would be next to impossible to employ this technique covertly; and I'm fairly certain that the people would be extremely reluctant to talk with us. We've made great strides in moving in among the people over the past year, especially in Anbar. Once living among the people, I view the proposed technique doing two main things: 1) as stated already, providing an intimate way to build rapport with the people; 2) in a sense providing a mobile defense in depth for us and the people given the inherent vulnerabilities and risks associated with moving 50-100 Marines/Soldiers in among a population numbering in the tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands.

Slapout, appreciate the LE perspective. I went for a ride-along with an LAPD gang unit last week. On a separate but related subject, I was amazed to see that certain parts of LA were gated off, only allowing one way in and one way out, as a result of an effort by community and police leaders to decrease drive-by shootings, robberies, and crime in general. Aside from the pretty black steel gates that were blocking many of the roads, this "strategy" struck me as very familiar to that being employed around Iraq with respect to placing berms around some communities and even barricading some of the districts in Baghdad.

Headed to the field for 5 days of training. Looking forward to learning more from you all when I get back. Semper Fi!