Far be it from me to say that our investment in tactical intelligence isn't crucial, but it would be good, at some level, to improve acuity on the basics like gepography, demographics, trade patterns, basic structure and function of internal governments, and key infrastructure---for the purpose of possible conflict analysis.
On the other hand, when I first heard about Human Terrain, it was in that context, not as just an anthropological endeavor about tribes.
In the pre-Kennedy days, every Embassy, for example, had a geographic attache, whose sole job was to collect any and all maps, reports and studies he could gather, and feed them into the system where folks in Foggy Bottom could study them to help interpret the World.
No more geographic attaches, and if there were, I doubt the collected info would go anywhere. Looks to me like even the CIA is just looking on the web, including our site. Not what people think.
Steve
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