I'm currently a squad leader in Iraq and a PTT chief, I advise the Iraqi Police daily and here is my take on COIN and the Army. Hardly anyone, even the officers, really understand the fundamentals of counterinsurgency. We received no formal training in counterinsurgency before we deployed, although I was able to arrange a company wide screening of "the battle of Algiers" at our armory before we left. My local university had an amazing collection of books on counterinsurgency in deep storage, “Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice” by David Galula was last checked out in 1968.

Intel is the only coin in the realm of counterinsurgency. How many times did I read that before I deployed and it’s absolutely true. The US Army needs to be organized around collecting, processing, analyzing and disseminating actionable Intel. My company TOC still has no Intel analyst assigned as part of our TOE. Fortunately, our TOC has a former Navy Intel guy and believe it our not, he forwards his analysis to BN and BDE for them to use and it’s supposed to be the other way around.

One time I was at one of my police station and a civilian walked in and wanted to give some information, I asked casually if he wouldn’t mind going to the FOB and talking with our people. This guy was angry; some Foreign Jihadis had moved into his neighborhood and were making a mess of things, so he agreed. When I radioed back to our TOC they said that our FOB force protection guys didn't want him on the FOB and to give him the number for the TIP line. When I did so, he looked at me and replied "Why are you insulting me like this?" I hope this Iraqi civilian didn't know where Osama Bin Laden was staying. The police chief was able to talk to him later for some time and we got some useful information.

Cultural Awareness-it’s amazing to me that active duty soldiers on their second and third tour lack Arab cultural sensitivity. Once, a soldier, not from our unit, deliberately spit on an Iraqi Policeman while riding in a Bradley going thru an Iraqi ECP. Within minutes, the entire police station was going to walk out and quit and 15 minutes later the Commanding General for the entire province was notified. It took hours of diplomacy and negotiation for this incident to pass. One soldier can have an affect, negative or positive, on the entire mission.

The real experts in this war are the NCO’s and Lt’s who leave the wire every day and interact with the local populace.