T. E. Lawrence was not the first irregular warfare theorist, but he was the first practitioner to note that the cognitive domain is crucial in such conflicts. In "Seven Pillars of Wisdom," he emphasized the psychological power of ideas. The salience of the cognitive, or informational, element of modern conflict is clearly rising in importance — but clearly not in the way that the advocates of network-centric warfare thought it was. Winning hearts and minds may be the dominant portion of the battle space, and what British insurgency expert John MacKinlay calls the "virtual dimension" of the battle space may be the central front.

http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2007/04/2550166

The author of the featured article has it right.

"But isolation does not have to be limited to the physical dimension. Insurgents and opponents should also be psychologically separated from external and internal sources of support. Here the counter-irregular force uses both military force and information operations to demoralize the active or armed elements, but more importantly to de-legitimize their underlying ideology or political movement. "

However, it is difficult to isolate the enemy if one is disconnected or isolated from the beginning. According to Andrew Kohut's "AMERICA AGAINST THE WORLD," polls showed that "most people around the world believe that America ignores their interest in making foreign policy, yet 67 percent of Americans feel that the United States pays attention to the interests of other countries -- a disconnect of a major order."