Th reason conventional military tactics aren't working in Iraq is because what's happening there is not a "war" in the conventional sense of the word. People call it "war" because the US and its allies have deployed their armed services and they are doing pretty much what they would do in a conventional war fought between opposing states.

That's the mistake. The only definable "enemy" in Iraq was Saddam's regime and it was soundly defeated. Everything that has occurred since the fall of Saddam has been violent civil unrest, not war. The methods used in a war are seldom the best methods to deal with civil unrest.

The "enemy" in cases of civil unrest is, simply put, anger. Anger is an emotion and, as such, is impervious to the tools used to pursue warfare. It's a Hydra-headed monster and strategies which only seek to cut off one of its heads guarantee that two will grow back in its place.

I don't claim to know how to solve the problem, but I know the solution rests within the realm of the sociologist, the educator, the psychologist, and the philosopher, not the soldier.