Sanctuary (or perhaps just area) denial operations at the Afghanistan village level

[Ron Humphrey]

Why "shape" - isn't that just an implied task of "clear"?

Its usually a pretty good practice to think through and understand what you expect to do and how you expect to do it before actually doing it.

Situation dependent of course.

Also helps to remember that to assume it's implied in clear holds the very high likelihood that the particular operation is approached more in a what do I want to make happen as opposed to what needs to happen to facilitate"X" and what might help to influence it that direction.