Quote Originally Posted by jcustis View Post
Quite a few not-so-small towns in Iraq have substantial berms around them now, and they facilitated control of traffic flow to a great degree. Are we exploring and/or utilizing this at all in Afghanistan?
I think it may be a bit tough to do this on a large scale in A'stan for two reasons: 1. Feasibility 2. Manpower requirements.

1. Feasibility- 30,000(?) villages, extended sparsely populated rural areas and mountainous terrain. That's just tough to attempt control.

2. Manpower requirements. Each village would take at least a platoon plus to seize.

I suppose it could be done on very small targeted areas for a short period of time, but the commander would have to choose wisely and determine if the potential pay-offs outweighted the cost. Some primer questions I'd ask would deal with purpose and intent

For instance, in Baghdad, the barriers were used to seperate the populace from the ethnic-sectarian fighting. In Ramadi and Zaganiyah, the control measures were used to convince/coerce the populace that the US forces were the biggest tribe. In Tal Afar, the berms were used to separate and protect the populace from the insurgency. So, population control measures can be used, but you gotta figure out purpose and intent.

Cavguy said:
One of the areas of broad agreement in almost all the theorists I have read for dealing with hostile areas. Influence ops and CA projects are useless in areas under insurgent control.
True, but your actions can be your influence operation. Depends on what you want to achieve.

One final point. I can't overstate the importance of good reconnaisance and surveillance prior to execution into denied areas. The confirm/deny of your initial hypothesis based off incoming information may drastically change what you thought you were getting into OR you may find decisive point that you could have missed (ex. location and massing of guerillas in a training camp).