hit several nails right on the head.

Bill said:

Quote Originally Posted by Bill Moore View Post
I have to disagree with one of his points though, he said said the terrorists wouldn't know where we're at, they would just know that we could be everywhere (paraphrasing), so their freedom of movement would be severely limited. U.S. military forces in an urban environment for he most part would still be identified by the locals, and that information could be relayed to the enemy by suportive locals.
I believe that the crux of Sgt Hanson's point was that by saturating an area with numerous fire teams operating as stealthily (tactically) as possible, vice squads moving in the open acting more as a ‘presence,’ that some would always be undetected. Granted in urban areas the more locals you operate around the greater the chance of being dimed out by them, but with enough fire teams operating in an area some would inevitably escape observation or detection (e.g. by infil and exfil at night). So eventually the bad guys would never be absolutely 100% sure they were not about to take a round in the back while planting an IED or operating freely in what was once a secure area. In COIN when we dance to their tune, they win. It's time we started setting a new tune of our own. And not a technical tune that has some gazillion dollar price tag attached (JIEDDO and MRAP come to mind).

Of course this would mean a major paradigm shift in the way our infantry operates and leadership thinks, the grunts would have to operate less like a ground pounder and more like SF. Boy oh boy, SOCOM would be in a tizzy then.

There are many who have made the fatal mistake of underestimating the intellectual prowess of Marine NCOs.