Quote Originally Posted by Bob's World View Post
Tactical problems are always hard, regardless of the type of warfare one is engaged in. This is the hard fact of the life of the combat soldier.

Doubly frustrating is that nagging question that is also always there, regardless of the form of combat, of if your hard efforts and sacrifice have in any way contributed to the ultimate "good" that brought you to this harsh place to begin with. Sadly, far too often, history shows that often effort and lives are squandered on efforts that contribute little to that ultimate success.

So, as to Mike's questions:

1. Corrupt governance.
2. Interdicting in denied areas, shadow govt's, or enemy safehavens.
3. Coping with corrupt police or army counter-parts.
4. Reconciling greivances on the tribal level.

The bigger and more important question is not how does one take on these difficult tactical challenges, but rather are these really the challenges that must be taken on at all.

I have opinions that I will share on all of these, but figured I'd see what others had to offer first.
It has been a constant frustration to me how often we fail to follow the adage know yourself before trying to know the enemy.

Put more bluntly can anyone point to any given society ours included within which all of 4 of those don't exist in some form.

And more importantly how they are addressed differently not only in different nations but even in different cities/towns/etc.

If we can accept at the reality of their existence and as they exist in a much more familiar form thus the reasons for various approaches will be easier to actually understand; then maybe we can ask the more important questions like why, where, and how to address them somewhere else.

-Ron