The first priority of work for any operation or activity was, has been, and always will be security. If you don't have that, you can't do anything else.
If the inference is that all American forces are doing is turtling up in FOBs, then the whole COP piece tears down that argument."She says the pre-eminence of force protection as a U.S. military mission is a holdover from 1990s peacekeeping efforts in the Balkans and Somalia. Troops were consolidated on large bases and contact with the civilian population was limited to prevent the possibility of "collateral damage" in tense confrontations between Americans and civilians. This practice quickly was extended to Iraq when the American military began battling a determined insurgency and commanders tried to minimize losses."
I don't know of any units that are camping out at the FOB. I don't know any that are not going on patrols. I'm not sure where this logic is coming from.
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