Help the little guy

Iraq | Counterterrorism expert Eric Egland is fighting the Pentagon over a bottom-up strategy to win where it counts | Priya Abraham

For eight months, Air Force Major Eric Egland toured all over Iraq with combat units, hitting hair-raising spots such as Ramadi and Fallujah. The Pentagon counterterrorism advisor listened to what hundreds of troops had to say about their mission and found a common theme: They were not getting the right support to help fight a morphing, terrorist insurgency.

After his 2005 tour, Egland said, "I was surprised at how localized the war really is—it made me realize the war is not going to be run out of the palaces of Baghdad."

But that, he says, is precisely what has happened: Pentagon decision makers still use top-heavy Cold War patterns in Iraq, rather than listening to units about what they need to win over locals and beat insurgents. The result, he says, has been a series of seemingly small mistakes that have built to major losses in the war.