Bill-T’s pal Husayn teaches us that CO-IN is not about up-armored Humvees:
“They return every night, the same patrol, and ask if my family is well. I offer them food, tea, they say, ‘Thank you,’ and sometimes they stay for a bite to eat, or a cup of tea. I see them in the marketplace, we say ‘Hello, how are you?’ and ask about their families, too. They are friends with all the neighborhood.
“One day, everything changes. The patrols are all in Humvees and they travel fast. The soldiers all look at us with suspicion from the Humvees and we do not understand why. Then I hear of Wahabi in the neighborhood, but I do not report them to the patrols
I wonder if there was a unit changeout – sometimes it’s hard to get past an incoming commander’s ego the fact that the guy who’s been there for 12 months actually does know how to do it right.
What’s so upsetting is that we not only used to know it.
Hell, once upon a time we did it ourselves!
And now we are forgetting it again and
again, a thousand times.
New unit in the AO. SSG Jeff has it right. Arrogance begets unnecessary casualties.
I don’t think that this is a new story…it’s about what happened a while ago. So it would appear that we have learned that lesson and are and have been doing the neighborhood policing and gaining success as reported by guys like Mike Yon – not that there are many such as Mike Yon.
When I was last deployed our job was escorting troops coming in or out via Kuwait, and we saw a lot of unit changes. One unit had developed excellent relations with the local population, had good intelligence and as a result had a very peaceful AO. They were relieved by a unit who wasn’t interested in the turnover info and who’s command felt their purpose was to kick a$$ and take names. Since they wanted a fight, they got one. The AO went to h3ll. Interestingly enough they were relieved by the original unit who in short order restored the situation. For the record, I don’t believe this was Bill T’s current AO.
BillT has some comments on the post that might help answer some of the questions being asked here.