Good housekeeping

Micheal Yon's advice on what to check before you go out with a unit.

If you are going on a combat mission and Soldiers have not cleaned all their windows to a sparkle (during times when it is possible to do so), do not go with them.

In addition, as at the start of any relationship...lubricant.

I also look at the state of their weapons and ammunition. Does the machine gunner have lubricant?

At the command level, again as with any relationship, it's communication skills.

Commanders who are afraid of the press or who cannot handle it cannot win this fight. They are often the same people who alienate Iraqis.

There's a lot more in this, the second in his series The Ghosts of Anbar. The first is here.