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There's a difference between "Can't demonstrate" and "difficult to gauge efficacy". They can't gauge the efficacy because they don't get to A/B test the Iraq w

There's a difference between "Can't demonstrate" and "difficult to gauge efficacy". They can't gauge the efficacy because they don't get to A/B test the Iraq war. They don't even really know how many insurgents there are, and definitely not with the accuracy and latency required to judge each operation. That said, the analytical stuff with the tracking videos seems like it surely must have contributed to homeland investigations. You can't tell me they'd ignore a signal like that.

M_Grey 10y ago
Assuming signal, rather than noise of course. Given that the only real result is that we lost that war, and that the groups we were trying to quash have morphed and taken over whole regions, it's hard to argue for any expenditure related to that endeavor. That said, even if we won it disturbs me that we're willing to spend so much on something that, at best, "might" be helpful. Worse, something that definitely didn't help in Korea or Vietnam...