text: Chapter 9
  9-42. As part of the joint force, the air component provides Army and Marine Corps units a number of
  critical direct enablers. Airpower provides supported ground forces a significant asymmetric advantage
  over insurgents as a result of their flexibility, situational understanding, freedom of maneuver, and access
  to immediate joint fires. Direct air and space enablers include, but are not limited to, air mobility, casualty
  evacuation, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, communications, cyber, global positioning
  system, personnel recovery, precision engagement (close air support and air interdiction), and electronic
  warfare.
  9-43. Two other important enablers are targeted threat infrastructure and strikes. Targeted threat
  infrastructure provides a means for a counterinsurgent to attack the resources that an insurgency uses to
  continue its effort. However, targeted threat infrastructure must always be conducted in support of other
  efforts. Counterinsurgents must weigh the effect of the operations on the legitimacy of the host nation
  among the local population. Strikes are conducted to disrupt an insurgency, and they can allow other efforts
  to succeed. Targeted threat infrastructure and strikes are not to be conducted in isolation, and
  simultaneously some force should be actively securing the population and building legitimacy.
  TARGETED THREAT INFRASTRUCTURE
  9-44. Targeted threat infrastructure is a method that seeks to destroy an insurgent force’s physical
  infrastructure. This is a method that will normally only work if another force is securing the population and
  building legitimacy. In other words, it is a method to enable another force. This method seeks to destroy the
  necessary requirements of an insurgency to conduct combat operations. Targeted threat infrastructure
  proactively targets the physical and societal mechanisms that support and fuel the insurgency. It involves
  an aggressive spirit of the offense. When using this method, commanders and staffs must consider the law
  of war principle of proportionality. The anticipated injury or damage caused to civilians or civilian property
  must not be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated by an attack on a
  military objective. Commanders and staffs using targeted threat infrastructure must also ensure it is not
  contributing to the recruitment of insurgent fighters by using too heavy a hand against elements of society
  that are not fully or willingly supporting the insurgency.
  9-45. Targeted threat infrastructure must be integrated into an effective host-nation effort that is securing
  the population. Targeted threat infrastructure can be an effective tool, if it is well planned and executed to
  avoid possible negative consequences of alienating the population and decreasing the legitimacy of the host
  nation. If the effect of targeted threat infrastructure is the physical elimination of the basic physical
  infrastructure needed by an insurgency, and it avoids the negative effects of alienating the population, it can
  be essential in a host nation’s counterinsurgency effort. However, it is a means to enable a host nation, not
  a method that should be used without an additional effort to secure the population.
  9-46. For targeted threat infrastructure to be effective, commanders and staffs must understand where an
  insurgency is attaining its strength and attack those areas and facilities. These efforts must further the
  desired overall end state and not undermine a host-nation government’s legitimacy. Commanders and staffs
  plan for and limit second and third order effects of attacks. Moreover, attacks are only targeted against the
  infrastructure the insurgency relies on. For example, crop eradication aimed at reducing cash flow is
  unlikely to effect an insurgency with a large amount of financial resources. It may, however, hurt the
  legitimacy of the host nation.
  9-47. Illicit crops such as marijuana, coca, or poppy used to fuel and fund an insurgency can be the targets
  threatened under the targeted threat infrastructure method. The cash from these crops may help arm, train,
  and pay insurgent fighters or pay condolence payments to the families of terrorists who kill themselves in
  suicide acts. Attacking such crops may hurt individual farmers. In some cases, farmers may be coerced by
  insurgents and have no real choice in the crops they produce. In others, farmers may support the
  insurgency. However, the illicit nature of these crops make them valid targets. To avoid creating new
  insurgents through crop destruction, counterinsurgents can work with interagency partners and the United
  States Agency for International Development to establish crop substitution programs that can help ease
  hardships farmers may experience.
  9-48. Another key target for the targeted threat infrastructure method is any material or physical item used
  to fuel the insurgency. For example, a road network that is the primary means of movement for insurgents