Probably the most effective LOO for reducing IEDs is to be much more aggressive in our IO campaigns, locally and globally, challenging the manhood of any Pashtun who would let an IED do his fighting for him. We cannot underestimate the power of the offensive warrior culture on these people. Sneaky defensive tactics are beneath them. We need to rub that in their faces.

Meanwhile there is no easy button cure to massive logistics packages that we must move daily. Those big diesel generators all over your FOB are sucking down fuel like rush hour traffic in LA. You won't fly that in with a UAV, or a C-130 for that matter.

Blowing up or sniping kids and night laborers hired to dig in IEDs is no solution either. Poppy money fuels this insurgency, and there are an endless supply of people who will work for cash; and the second order impact on creating anger and dissent among the populace by targeting these workers is far too significant to ignore.

I suspect going after IEDs is a lot like going after pirates, in that if you are looking on the roads and the high seas you are going after the symptoms and not the roots of your problem. There are key nodes to IED networks that must be ID'd and reduced or mitigated, and they are in the neighboring towns and extend into Pakistan and Iran. Similarly pirates are probably more effectively dealt with on land than at sea. We just need to step back from the problem far enough to see the solution.

Meanwhile, its a dangerous, high-stress world out there for a lot of our guys each and every day. Keep them in your thoughts and prayers.