Quote Originally Posted by omarali50 View Post
information operations cannot change the reality on the ground all by themselves. If the taliban look like they are coming back and the infidels are visibly planning to get out and their only local agents are corrupt and incompetent, then what kind of smart IO will convince the local population to support the infidels? (I am not saying that is the entire reality of Afghanistan, just that wherever things are closer to this scenario, no IO can fix them).
I agree that IO is not a fix-all for the horrible situation, especially in relation to local governance. However, a good IO campaign will provide a little buffer for when you screw up. In Nangarhar, for example, the total absence of an IO campaign gave us (coalition and ISAF) no room to screw anything up. When it inevitably happened, the outcome was always bad.