"Traditional Mechanisms"

Hot on the heels of Afghanistan's electile dysfunction and the attendant combat - P4 gave it up to Teutons with some clever insight and hot! sight bites on AFPAK

"...We have not had a sufficient take on each of the valleys and villages in which we're operating. But again: You only get there when you have a sufficient density of forces on the ground. I'll give you an example: We didn't realize that two districts west of Kandahar had developed into very important Taliban sanctuaries over the period of five years. It was only recently that we realized the extent of those safe havens.

"...The lesson from this is that all counterinsurgency efforts must be local, which means that you must really understand the dynamics, the personality, the customs, the system, the traditional mechanisms of a given place -- and you can't develop that kind of understanding until you have enough forces on the ground.