Afghanistan ROE Change

**William F. Owen** · 07-07-2009

Originally Posted by tequila

Isn't that where the whole "separating the population from the insurgents" and "focus on securing the population" comes in? The idea is not to go in without weapons, but rather to use those to protect the population from insurgent attacks rather than attacking the insurgents amongst the population, no?

If someone tells me that defending the population is best enabled by killing and capturing the enemy, I am in complete agreement, because if you don't kill them, once you leave, they come back.

From my understanding, improving government services comes after the population has been separated from the insurgents, in order to remove the root causes of the insurgency and cut it off from its political base.

So once the enemy are gone, you re-assert government control. Sounds good!

**Surferbeetle** · 07-07-2009

Originally Posted by William F. Owen

If someone tells me that defending the population is best enabled by killing and capturing the enemy, I am in complete agreement, because if you don't kill them, once you leave, they come back.

So once the enemy are gone, you re-assert government control. Sounds good!

...and even though we blind men are describing different parts of it I think that we are all describing the same elephant.

My experiences, which are just a datapoint and not the end all and be all of anything, are that effective security work & population work are inexorably intertwined.

Lets simplify and only look at water and security in a 'tactical' sense.

Consider humoring me and sketching three lines, two will be vertical and a hands breadth apart while one will connect the two on the bottom...a flattend U if you will. The bottom axis is time (0-100% of the time available for the mission). The left axis is population needs (0-100%) and the right axis is cost (0-100% of cost/resources available for mission).

A horizontal line from about 10% on the population needs axis over to the cost axis would define must haves: enough water and policemen or soldiers to get you through that 125F day without dying. A horizontal line from about 30% on the population needs axis would define should haves: 'enough' water to drink, clean with, grow some crops with and the security to keep you going. A horizontal line from about 40% on the population needs axis would define nice to haves: more than 'enough' water to drink, clean with, grow some crops with and the equivalent security to enjoy them with. Each day could be plotted to get a sense of whats happening.

Get the folks in your AO spending more time on non-kinetic things so that its easier to identify and properly address the troublemakers...go Wilf go

Thats an incomplete look of course...there needs to be some sort of local leadership structure which can sustain these tactical things. Now one heads into operational and strategic issues and of course it gets much stickier...