Checkpoints are the bread and butter of low-intensity operations in Iraq, Lebanon, East Timor and elsewhere. The idea is to set yourself up in the locals’ streams of foot and vehicle traffic and screen them for the illegal weapons, cash or wounds that might indicate illicit activity. Only one in a hundred checks will turn up anything, but still it’s worth it: checkpoints are boring, but they work.
But it’s not just the good guys setting them up. Iraqi militias have been known to stop and search vehicles for members of opposing sects … and kill them. And in Timor, the gang-bangers who are one of the major threats to stability use checkpoints to go at their rivals.
Yesterday I accompanied a foot patrol from the Royal Australian Regiment through some of the impoverished villages west of the capital city of Dili. Section leader Corporal Steven Clacy coaxed some intel out of the locals and learned that one of the gangs had been running one such checkpoint nearby. His best evidence? A member of rival gang living had a foot-long wound on his stomach he’d received after getting nabbed at the checkpoint.
Adaptive enemies who quickly learn to counter – or duplicate – your tactics are a hallmark of current operations. The best armies stay ahead of this adaptation by leveraging their particular strengths: in the Australian Army’s case, its good relationship with many Timorese and its superior intelligence-gathering. Now that Clacy and his fellow Diggers know about this checkpoint, they can do something about it.
--David Axe, cross-posted at War Is Boring
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