文档介绍：Story by Scott Swanson
Know your Enemy
In this “new era” of extremist Islamic elements, how Operations or Civil Affairs assessment, will provide some
much more do we know about that enemy than we did of the needed information. But to truly understand an en-
five years ago? Even with our experiences in Vietnam, El emy and the means necessary to obtain intelligence about
Salvador, the Balkans and the Middle East, how well-pre- such an adversary in asymmetrical and asynchronous
pared are we to fight today’s unconventional wars? With encounters, elements of special-operations forces, or SOF,
an increase of asymmetrical conflicts in which belligerents need to re-embrace the role of social/political adviser or
take full advantage of their own strengths and the weak- develop additional skills and deeper cultural insights, so
nesses of their more powerful adversaries, why do intelli- that they can obtain the necessary information from locals
gence models fail to provide the actionable insights needed and detainees.
for locating and defeating such armed elements? In Iraq,
for example, those fighting American forces include - Projects vs. programs
plex mix of Sunni tribal militias, former regime members, The type of skills and deeper cultural bridging needed
foreign and domestic jihadists, Shiite militias and criminal to gain additional insights into the adversari