Item — HN Reader

For me (never served in the military, but ran a contracting company operating in war zones for 5-10 years)

1: Priorities: (a) Secure the town at all costs (not strictly "at all costs", but I believe commander's intent is to have a base of supply, and the water source is critical). Mission success is primary here, but I'm not 100% that "secure the town" is the only way. (e) Figure out how to accomplish mission without a fight. (c) Minimize friendly casualties

The journalist is secondary. We would never violate laws of armed conflict, and the journalist is a grown ass man who is knowingly in the war zone, so any risk is on him. My career is secondary.

I'm uncertain there's a reason to fight the town militia. Ideally I'd go in myself with interpreter and small PSD (with a QRF ready) to negotiate with village elders and get their support. It's their town; we'd happily pay for access, and base outside the town. Maybe upgrade their water/infra too.

Town isn't where I'd want to fight from, anyway, just need to to be safe. My logistics point would be terrain based.

2) ConOps to include: b) Approach on the road in daylight k) Occupy hill west of town as base of fire l) Occupy an overwatch position on the hill south of town m) Halt a vehicle heading into town and have them escort you

(Basically, set something up overtly to suppress the town IFF it becomes hostile, and if available, conduct surveillance/recon of the town before entry, but then go in overtly and without much drama.)

Apparently that was the secondary option "chosen by a significant minority of experts, particularly those with Special Forces experience."

I read through, and I (someone with no military experience) came to a pretty much identical conclusion. No point fighting if the objective can be secured with diplomacy. Granted, you always have to be ready for a fight, so having overwatch is paramount. But yeah, going for a hearts and minds approach seems the most sensible way of completing the objective with a minimum of fuss, given the situation presented.

Same here. The tactical options feel like a red herring: because up front the big detail is that the town, and the militia, are not necessarily hostile - though individual members might be. So top priority really is avoiding a fight at all: particularly because your only long range options (the mortars) are going to wipe the town out entirely, and likely lead to having to fight door to door through the two objective structures in the first place.

No experience here, but I came to the exact same conclusions you did. Avoid fights where possible, but be prepared for them if they happen.

And presumably you'd think the enemy forces were large enough already, there's no reason to add another couple hundred.