School of the Soft Knocks

The past few weeks since the speed bump* have gone by quickly, Steel Platoon is back out in the town doing missions instead of grounded on Taji for safety standdown. The information flows in quickly, people are fed up with the punks and outsiders trying to ruin stability in their region. We are constantly getting phone calls and anonymous tips from locals about who, where, and when the bad things are occurring. The best part is it takes out the hours of blindly stumbling around looking for a nugget. So far the key to any success we have had has been information coming in from the people in town. (*long story short a safety standdown on Taji for a negligent discharge at the clearing barrel)

A few lessons about counterinsurgency that I have read about before and definitely agree with now that I have seen them in action are the importance of information from the populace, making military goals and plans subordinate to the civilian government's, the less firepower you use the better, and the only progress you make is in areas the population supports.

The first one I have already pointed out above, but is really the most important. These people know who the bad guy is, what he has done, and where he can be found. We come out on patrol and see a 'population' and not a bad guy with horns and a tail. They walk around all day with the knowledge of exactly which one of their neighbors has plans to do harm to Coalition Forces. The only way to get that information is provide a means for them to communicate it to you without exposure. They will not walk up to you on the street or in the base, they won't cough in their neighbors direction on patrol, no--information comes in the form of a cell phone call after dark. Another key is to give them a reason to call, or better yet, not give them a reason not to call. Rough treatment, having a general prejudice against the population, disrespect towards the culture, and threats of violence will not coerce the late night phone calls from the willing. They have to see the hope we bring and want the change brought about.

The second lesson deals with priorities. As a military we have a certain way we want things done and a certain timeline we want them done in. Civilian governments often execute in the realm of promises, compromise, negotiations, and procrastination; these words are greek to the operations officer. We know situation, mission, execution--see the problem, know the endstate, make it work. Something also referred to as square peg round hole syndrome. And then right before we execute the plan here comes Murphy with his 'wait the city council says they are going to do this with that road.' The military can be a monster at times, it is thrown at a problem and then watched from a distance. The civilian government(in this case the Iraqi government) must have priority and control in all matters. It is their country, it is their progress, it is their endstate. Not only does understanding this principle reinforce the government's willingness to work with the military, it reinforces the power of the government which in turn rallies the support of the population, which in the end is the endstate.

Precision and restraint are the two maxims we apply to any and all reactions to hostile force. It is important to defend yourself and imperative you don't allow your force to get sniped at or bullied without some reaction, but the key is to eliminate the threat, not the threat area or the threat's family or the threat's way of life. Find exactly what you are targeting and hit it quick and surely. Support for military operations from the local population is grounded on the assumption that the military acts against the enemy and not that population. They support our targeting of those who target us, the minute we slip or deviate from that explicit target is the minute the support of the populations slips away.

And in the end, the support of the population decides the victor in an insurgency. The population is the prize(to quote FIASCO), they get all the votes, the war is fought in the court of public opinion just like steroid scandal. He who gets the most support wins. Our fight is just as much as a PA/PR campaign as it is a war on terror, in fact at this stage I would say even 70% so. We must take into account the reaction of the population to all actions before we act, ignoring their vote would be disastrous to our campaign. You don't have to kill all the bad guys, just eliminate the support they garner from the local population. Without it, they can't hide, they can't move, they can't attack. They just get handed candy and a PA flyer as our patrol drives by on the way to another meeting. What a war.