An update on The Surge that is right up our alley:
What tactics are working? "We got down at the people level and are
staying," [Gen Petraeus] said flatly. "Once the people know we are going to be
around, then all kinds of things start to happen."More intelligence, for example. Where once tactical units
were "scraping" for intelligence information, they now have
"information overload," the general said. "After our guys are in the
neighborhood for four or five days, the people realize they’re not
going to just leave them like we did in the past. Then they begin to
come in with so much information on the enemy that we can’t process it
fast enough."
Intelligence in counterinsurgency, or any conflict we fight these days, is paramount. What point on the earth can’t we blow up? The trick: identifying the point. Intelligence drives operations. A colleague in the forward area weighs in:
The militias and terrorists don’t have the support of the people, consequently once we set up shop we end up with more intel than we know what to do with. Not uncorroborated data but the five-Ws and then some. What we can’t do is act on it all. The ISF can be a mixed bag but it doesn’t help that the likes of SCIRI and JAM politicians sabotage whatever good work they do.
Imagine that.