Most of the post is attributable to the sharp mind of the host. Brilliant take Wretchard.

It is a chicken egg question and not a gee-whiz technology or boots on the ground problem. The Army always set up as an intelligence/command post, or in a strategic sense, a hammer and anvil of you will. You need both. Slamming a hammer against the air does little.

Technology vs. surge. The technology-slash-special operations argument, incidentally is the Rumsfeld vs. Patton argument.