Introduction

The term military intelligence normally evokes the image of shadowy wartime schemes, devised at the highest levels of national intelligence, designed to reveal and thwart the strategic military plans of an attacking or defending opponent. This image is replete with agents and spies insinuating themselves into the highest enemy military or political councils of state and brilliant codebreakers eavesdropping on the most sensitive of military secrets. It recalls the feats of a Mata Hari, the impact of a lost operational order falling into the hands of a lucky enemy soldier, and the codebreaking contributions of Ultra. The scarcity and notoriety of these examples prompt us to romanticize them and generalize from them to conclude that such brilliant strokes of intelligence work often determine the course and outcome of war. More importantly, the existence of these popularized cases blinds us to one of the realities of modern combat — that intelligence in war is a mundane, timeconsuming, and often frustrating process which frequently confuses, as much as it clarifies, the course of battle and war.