Investigative Work in Iraq with Cpt. Cook...

18 December, 2007

We are settled into our forward combat outpost... near the ancient ruins of the Assyrian capital, Ashur, along the banks of the Tigris River... Over the past year, our Troop trained really hard for the worst case scenario, which is constant gun battles and other intense fighting that often times erupts in a counterinsurgency campaign. We prepared for this contingency because you always need to be ready for such worst, but our area of operations right now is in line with the general trend across Iraq since the surge: a slow, methodical campaign to uproot insurgent networks that operate a lot like a mafia family would. It is a painstaking process with a lot of emphasis on investigative work. Fortunately, our police training with the Austin Police department’s organized crime division is paying huge dividends in this type of campaign. We use force when we have to, but we are finding that more often restraint and forbearance pays far more dividends in winning over the population to our side.

Uh-oh! Looks like AA and AI might need to modify their Sherman-esque approach?