You can't succeed in beating the insurgents unless you can convince the people that they can be protected.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
You can't kill your way to success in a counter insurgency effort. You have to protect the people, get the civil military balance right, train the locals, and practice effective strategic communications.
Insurgents throughout Iraq continue to threaten our efforts and pose a danger to stability in the region. They fight not for their country, but rather against ours.
In Iraq we must succeed. Failure is not an option.
We have to defeat ISIS. We have to make certain that we destroy them and that we push them back.
You can't talk about defeating insurgencies in the same way that you can with a conventional army.
We can't possibly fight all the terrorists in all the countries where they exist because we don't have the money or manpower to do so.
Guerrilla wars, and even more so terrorist assaults, are conducted only by forces with insufficient strength to carry out a real war.
The insurgents are Baathists and Sunnis in Iraq who have as their goal a separate and distinct one of toppling the government that is there and creating their own.
The most stupid mistake a counter-insurgency operation can make is alienating the population. If you alienate the population, you're finished.
The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not 'insurgents' or 'terrorists' or 'The Enemy.' They are the revolution, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow - and they will win.