Intelligence, Data, COIN and CT

[slapout9]

But Slap we gonna have to go at it on this one.
I'm gonna read the book and get some points to debate on but I'll start out with this. Focus on capturing physical terrain such as land or even infrastructure is effective but not the COG. Reason being it simply provides job security for the armed force by creating a requirement to maintain that control. The people on the other hand own the land, the jobs, the causes, basically any factor which contributes to the end result of any given operations.

Hi Ron, My point was/is it's the people and the terrain "together" (which is what geography used to be about when I was in school) that equal the COG...you just said it better then me.

[Ron Humphrey]

Hi Ron, My point was/is it's the people and the terrain "together" (which is what geography used to be about when I was in school) that equal the COG...you just said it better then me.

Just as long as those setting forth the path don't allow the different parties to claim responsibility for one of the two and expect a different party to handle the other

Example:
Lanes, Not my job its yours, I'll take the ground then you diplomacize.

[Beelzebubalicious]

I haven't read the book, but I am suspicious of overly rationalized Western models for dealing with issues like land. On one hand, there is data and it lends itself to analysis and problem solving, but in my experience, that's the smaller part of the picture. Land administration and laws are paramount and a database of information, while useful, doesn't deal with the issues around the value of land (money), corruption, identity issues and so on...untangling property rights in some of these countries is a nightmare. I have a friend in Cambodia that owns a piece of land up by Siem Reap which was essentially siezed and squatted on by local authorities. She has a deed to the land, but it's not helping her much. She has no recourse beyond physically kicking off the squatter(s).