In this August 2013 interview, Maj. Stephen Campbell, United Kingdom Army, Intelligence Corps discusses his three deployments to Iraq as an Intelligence officer for 1st UK Armoured Division and 3rd UK Mechanized Division in 2004, 2005-2006, and 2008 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Maj. Campbell discusses the British campaign in Basra from 2004 to 2008 highlighting the military intelligence mission. He describes some problems with the British campaign plan and talks about some difficult issues he dealt with. He discusses some challenges he faced and shares his concern about lessons learned or the lack thereof regarding operations in Iraq. Maj. Campbell closes his interview by stating, "First thing you need to address is understanding. In a counterinsurgency campaign, I think, the most difficult thing to -- this might be the big learning point -- the most difficult thing to do in a counterinsurgency campaign is to realize you're in a counterinsurgency campaign, because you didn't go there to fight a COIN conflict. You went there to do something else and you've made a mistake and now you're facing an insurgency and you're got to beat it. So, I think the most difficult thing you're got is understanding that. Understating really is -- you should build your whole campaign around improving your understanding and the intelligence is a key part of that."

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