Jedburgh wrote, "On the other hand, the patrol should not be in the business of "selling" anything - or pushing any sort of ideological "message". Actions speak louder than words."

This is absolutely, completely, totally wrong. This is an old mindset that has been obsolete for 40 years and if we continue with it, we are going to lose.

Every patrol is selling something. First they are selling an idea. An idea for which people will risk their lives by giving us intelligence on the enemy. An idea that is REINFORCED BY ACTIONS - the MEDCAPs, infrastructure projects, etc. that you mentioned.

Before those actions can take place, before a patrol sends out a "Psychological Presence" it needs to understand why we are doing a MEDCAP and what psychological message we are sending.

There are Islamic NGOs that do MEDCAPS, build schools, hand out books. However, their message is based in Salafist, Wahhabi Islam and encourages its people to kill all non Muslims.

The reason we need an official, unified message is exactly for this reason. What does freedom mean? Someone wrote we are here so Sunni do not kill Shiia. Does this mean our intervention in Iraq is based on intra-Iraq religious tolerance. How do you know those people are interested in religious tolerance? They need to pick up what we put down.

Freedom. Freedom to do what? Freedom from what?

In counter insurgency, the most important thing a patrol does is sell an idea. America is an idea. Marines jump on hand grenades for an idea, a feeling, a belief. So do jihadists. Every action we take must be in support of selling our ideology. It is from this ideology that we can tailor the means by which we sell it -sometimes with a gun, other times with a band aid on a block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood battle.