Now, if I may address the actual subject of the article; seeing the Army actually manage the incredible amount of intelligence that is gathered and take action on it is heartening.
In Afghanistan, we had a fair capability to gather information, but a much harder time managing it. The platforms can gather tons of information, but so much of it is never really acted upon because it is lost in the huge data stream. The battle for Sadr City is a microcosmic display of what right looks like in such a fight. Now if we could just execute that on an area roughly the size of Texas, we’d be in business.
The ability to utilize technology well does not change a basic tenet of counterinsurgency, though. Security. When there is security in the neighborhood, the citizens are much more likely to point out the troublemakers, because they don’t want them to take the situation back to what it was when there was fighting in the streets. A citizen who doesn’t know which side is going to win will not, unless driven by strong ideology, give up the neighborhood organizer. When he is starting to see some fruit from security, he will do so in order to continue to see those fruits. That tiny part of the story is something that was overlooked.
Another aspect is the low-tech concrete barriers. When the government can control population transfer, they have the ability to prevent the easy movement of men and arms from one area to another. That is a reason why an insurgency would be difficult to manage here in the States.
While we have freedom of movement, it would be relatively simple to identify and apprehend significant groups of men and arms. We have ID cards, and it is a law that you must carry identification. That is a responsibility of government on the public safety side. (Provide for the common defence, provide domestic tranquility.) These are legitimate realms for government.
Providing this capability through movement control points at a concrete wall is the low-tech version of our ability to track population flow here in the United States. It was good counterinsurgency strategy and those walls can be removed as the government of Iraq is able to provide effective community policing.
