text: Appendix C
  is small), but small-scale projects rarely proceed smoothly into large programs. Keep
  programs small; this makes them cheap, sustainable, low-key, and (importantly) recoverable
  if they fail. You can add new programs—also small, cheap and tailored to local conditions—
  as the situation allows.
  25. Fight the enemy’s strategy, not his forces. At this stage, if things are proceeding well, the
  insurgents will go over to the offensive. Yes, the offensive, because you have created a
  situation so dangerous to the insurgents (by threatening to displace them from the
  environment) that they have to attack you and the population to get back into the game. Thus
  it is normal, even in the most successful operations, to have spikes of offensive insurgent
  activity late in the operation. This does not necessarily mean you have done something wrong
  (though it may, it depends on whether you have successfully mobilized the population). At
  this point the tendency is to go for the jugular and seek to destroy the enemy’s forces in open
  battle. This is rarely the best choice at company level, because provoking major combat
  usually plays into the enemy’s hands by undermining the population’s confidence. Instead,
  attack the enemy’s strategy. If he is seeking to recapture the allegiance of a segment of the
  local population, then co-opt them against him. If he is trying to provoke a sectarian conflict,
  go over to peace-enforcement mode. The permutations are endless, but the principle is the
  same: Fight the enemy’s strategy, not his forces.
  26. Build your own solution—only attack the enemy when he gets in the way. Try not to be
  distracted or forced into a series of reactive moves by a desire to kill or capture the
  insurgents. Your aim should be to implement your own solution, the game plan you
  developed early in the operation and then refined through interaction with local partners.
  Your approach must be environment-centric (based on dominating the whole district
  and implementing a solution to its systemic problems) rather than enemy-centric. This means
  that particularly late in the operation you may need to learn to negotiate with the enemy.
  Members of the population that supports you also know the enemy’s leaders. They may have
  grown up together in the small district that is now your company sector, and valid negotiating
  partners sometimes emerge as the operation progresses. Again, you need close interagency
  relationships to exploit opportunities to co-opt segments of the enemy. This helps you wind
  down the insurgency without alienating potential local allies who have relatives or friends in
  the insurgent movement. At this stage, a defection is better than a surrender, a surrender
  is better than a capture, and a capture is better than a kill.
  GETTING SHORT
  C-9. Time is short, and the tour is drawing to a close. The key problem now is keeping your people
  focused, maintaining the rage on all the multifarious programs, projects, and operations that you have
  started, and preventing your people from dropping their guard. In this final phase, the previous articles still
  stand, but there is an important new one.
  27. Keep your extraction plan secret. The temptation to talk about home becomes almost
  unbearable toward the end of a tour. The locals know you are leaving, and probably have a
  better idea than you of the generic extraction plan. Remember, they have seen units come
  and go. But you must protect the specific details of the extraction plan, or the enemy will use
  this as an opportunity to score a high-profile hit, recapture the population’s allegiance by
  scare tactics that convince them they will not be protected once you leave, or persuade them
  that your successor unit will be oppressive or incompetent. Keep the details secret within a
  tightly controlled compartment in your headquarters.
  FOUR “WHAT IFS”
  C-10. The articles above describe what should happen, but we all know that things go wrong. Here are
  some what ifs to consider:
  • What if you get moved to a different area? You prepared for ar-Ramadi and studied Dulaim
  tribal structures and Sunni beliefs. Now you are going to Najaf and will be surrounded by