One of our greatest handicaps in this war to date is the failure of the intel community to recognize and embrace the fact that this type of warfare is far more about the populace and the environment than about threats; and that as they are the ones with the trained personnel and processes for analysis they have a duty to cover the entire spectrum.

You hear the "Red-Blue-Green; and we just do red" argument a lot, and it just doesn't wash. It is no wonder our commanders are so focused on who do they need to go kill or capture, as that is what their staff briefs them on every morning.

So my advice, is make sure you understand the big picture, and what the true measure of success is in your AOR. Then ensure that you are collecting and analyizing intelligence that addresses the full spectrum of the problem you are working to resolve.

Even when looking at HVTs, you need to be able to clearly prioritize these guys based not upon their "rank" in an organization, but by how important they are to the effective overations of the network in your AOR; as tempered by the negative effect associated with engaging certain personnel. Some should be "targeted" for much softer forms of engagement than a JDAM in the night. Some just need the JDAM.

Every civil event executed in your AOR should be designed, planned, and synched into a grand scheme of engagement based upon a holistic intelligence picture that is constantly striving to understand all of the many factors at play in a community where there are potentially a variety of insurgent organizations with varying agendas, as well as AQ related cells conducting UW to incite and enable the insurgency. Each must be understood both uniquely and as they fold into the whole. All of this is then woven into the overall fabric of legitimate activities, actors and organizations just trying to go about their daily lives. If you can do this, you wil be a rock star.

Or you can just strum out endless "smoke on the water" quality rifs of "here are the bad guys in our AOR..." (This is what I usually see, and it is depressing in its myopic tunnel vision nature)