Perhaps this was really just an all points bulletin to encourage commanders to do exactly what most here would advocate is needed to run a successful counter-insurgency.

What the senior commanders in Astan seem to be trying to do is change the paradigm from the battalion sweep in MRAPs to the population-centric fight.

The trick is how to go about doing that, given the units in country come from all different commands and backgrounds. Find what is common to all and tweek it would be one way. Awards fit that bill.

I'm not sure that this was the intent (pure conjecture here) but were I to try to tackle the problem, this might be a method.

Nonetheless, I see a great deal of room for this to go wrong without some further clarification. The level of uncertainty on this forum alone makes one wonder what S-1 is churning out for the citation of the new ARCOM-R medal.