The fact that it's news when U.S. troops decide it's important to "replac[e] confrontation with courtesy in hopes of winning public trust and undercutting support for the militants" is more evidence that Defense Department leadership is grossly deficient.
Ramadi, a Sunni-dominated city in Iraq's western Anbar Province, is probably the most dangerous place in the country save Baghdad, and there is constant conflict, both between the Coalition and Iraqis and between Iraqis themselves. The best counterinsurgency tactic in that kind of environment is to undercut the local support for the fighters and create conditions in which people would rather help a benificent Coalition presence than join the insurgency. That very basic fact has apparently escaped DoD leadership, leading to revelations like this occurring in the third year of war:
Marines based in western Ramadi now regularly knock on people's front doors instead of storming through. Instead of roaming the streets in armored Humvees, Marines took a census of the area - sitting down and listening to people's concerns and complaints.It's not the units' job to determine how to best fight the war, those decisions come from above. I don't blame the boots on the ground for not figuring it out earlier, I blame leadership for not telling them how to do it right. This kind of counterinsurgency move takes discipline, and it's certainly not easy, but it's the right way to go. The fact that it's a newsworthy anomaly is outrageous.
"You'd be surprised at how many people in Ramadi are shocked when we knock and ask to come in. And in Arab culture, it makes all the difference," said 2nd Lt. Ryan Hub of Sumter, S.C., who as a teenager lived in Kuwait for two years while his Air Force officer father was stationed there.
