Are we securing the people?

[77Marine98]

Sirs, beware that I am not a Soldier and that my experience is limited.

With that said, a similar scenario has been documented before. The book Stalking the Vietcong (Stuart A. Herrington) talks about Cpt. Herrington's experiences with the Phoenix program in Vietnam.

Among other themes is the social and political interaction at village level, and how that pertains to intelligence gathering. Similarities also go on from both infiltration of the indigenous forces and the violent threat of the insurgents, to show how the enemy motivation could be understood and therefore exploited in defection programs.

Issues such as being overrun are present, too.


Other than that, I'd like to express a concern about surveillance of cell phones (and phones in general). More I will not say, minding my lack of knowledge.

Martin

Martin, regardless of your background or experience you surfaced a Vietnam era program that worked well, but was vilified in the press and has since become an urban legend. We should study what Phoenix and CORDS did in Vietnam as a harbinger for future operations in that we may most certainly find particular aspects that may be useful, and go figure, successful. Vietnam was not the “total” failure some would like us to believe it was. Of particular note are the lessons we might learn if only we studied them.