Irregular Warfare Lessons

The head of United States Division-Center in Iraq today gave a window on some of the irregular warfare lessons learned -- particularly working with the State Department -- over the past several years' operations in that country.

"We're doing a fair bit out here working with the State Department and these provincial reconstruction teams doing civil capacity operations," Maj. Gen. Terry Wolff told reporters this morning in a teleconference call. Additionally:

And so we kind of consider that a supporting line of effort of ours. Security and helping the ISF deal with the security is mission number one, but we also have a strong and vibrant effort working with our State Department and other interagency brethren who partner with us on -- every single day.

So it's not unusual to have a session, either out on the ground or back in headquarters planning, where we have Provincial Reconstruction Team members, State Department folks working side by side with USAID with a small American element, be it a platoon or a small company, that's out there doing business with Iraq tribal sheikhs, provincial leadership and Iraqi security forces all together. That's much different than what we experienced in 2003 or even 2004, and we've gotten a lot better at doing that. And that's what you're seeing play out both in Iraq and in Afghanistan.