Don't even get me started on QM. I have one particular QM O6 in mind, that is gonna stay deployed forver because he knows me and my guys are loose in the Zone of the Interior (as they said in WWII).
I had the bad fortune to be shanghaied into an INSCOM assignment, just as the MI Corps was established in the eighties. They gave us all certificates, suitable for framing... I promptly made a paper plane of mine while all the MI girls (of both chromosomal arrangements) were cooing over theirs. Still have it, and it still flies great. (Good thick paper).
The regular units can defend themselves against these irregulars. It is not rocket science. Just do good perimeter security, stay alert, watch your buddy's back. As a career-long irregular, when we got tripped up it was never somebody's master plan to bag us, it was just one alert snuffy when we were counting on carelessness.
All your stuff on sanitation, etc. is true. Sadly, its all there in basic field manuals. What I have often seen with GIs and people in general is that they will sit and wait to be told what to do. You have to be proactive on improving your situation.
Latest word is that the tour in Iraq is going to be one year, and that 3rd will be coming home by the end of sept. or so. I think a lot of the bitching has been caused by the kind of spastic changes of plan. American soldiers are not Prussians. You gotta tell them what's up, and the conventional army always forgets to do this.
Finally, a book recommendation. For anyone that has ever suffered under some 10-watt Pol Pot who thinks he's actually Napoleon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0970874693/103-8292140-7493414?v=glance d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F