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

[jcustis]

Instead of thinking in terms of I need to get from Shape to Clear to Hold to Build (becuase you can do all of those things in theory and not affect what phase the insurgent is in a single, significant bit); it is to my way of thinking far more instructive to have your intel guys (hey, after all they love to brag how intel drive ops...) produce a product for you that shows you what phase the insurgent is in across your battlespace.

Excellent points BW, and something I have been trying to get at with this thread all along.

You can even build a color coded overlay for your map that shows Green (ph 0), Amber (ph1), Red (Ph 2) and Black (Ph 3) regions. This allows you to explain to politicians, the media, and the populace back home, that you are not here to FIX (build?) the country, but merely to bring the situation within the realm of civil capacity.

Another excellent point. Fiddling in/around the BUILD phase, and wringing our hands over what part the host nation is playing, seems to be kicking our ass at the moment. Heck, it's been kicking our ass the entire time, with the analyses I've seen of our disjointed development efforts.