RE: [Futurework] Look in the mirror

[Karen Watters Cole]

Keith, responding to your comment about the likelihood of a massacre under the present troop deployment ratio, the Army has been criticized in some quarters for its heavy-handed tactics. It’s also come to our attention that the Israelis have trained some US troops at Ft Bragg, that some of our people have trained in Israel and some Israeli “consultants” are in country with elite US troops who are employing IDF urban guerrilla warfare tactics.  Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, the outspoken Christian general who attracted a lot of negative attention recently, is credited with this decision to adopt IDF tactics. (see links below).  Ironic, isn’t it, that IDF tactics are under attack by some in Israel for prolonging the intifada as much as defending against it.   Due to this negative publicity, it is not coincidental, I gather, that NYT war correspondent Michael Gordon just put up an interview with the Marine general whose invasion troops (now on R&R) will be relieving some of the greatly outnumbered Army troops.  Certainly, when engaged in long -term military occupation, there is going to be some interagency competition and differences, which might not add to consistency. Nevertheless, things need to improve. So it was not good news to read that more than half of the Iraqi Army recruits just trained have abandoned their jobs. (see below). As the cover of a recent TIME magazine said: Mission Not Accomplished, or in French for Harry, C’est non accomplait (my apologies if my high school français is wrong).   Excerpts from Marines Plan To Use Velvet Glove More Than Iron Fist In Iraq @ http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/12/international/middleeast/12MARI.html   “Marine commanders say they do not plan to surround villages with barbed wire, demolish buildings used by insurgents or detain relatives of suspected guerrillas. The Marines do not plan to fire artillery at suspected guerrilla mortar positions, an Army tactic that risks harming civilians. Nor do the Marines want to risk civilian casualties by calling in bombing strikes on the insurgents, as has happened most recently in Afghanistan.   "I do not envision using that tactic," said Lt. Gen. James T. Conway, the commanding general of the First Marine Expeditionary Force, who led the Marine force that fought its way to Baghdad and will command the more than 20,000 marines who will return to Iraq in March. "It would have to be a rare incident that transcends anything that we have seen in the country to make that happen."   The increase in guerrilla attacks on American troops in Iraq has prompted Army units in the so-called Sunni triangle in central Iraq to adopt a hard-nosed approach — and spawned a behind-the-scenes debate within the American military about the best way to quash the insurgents.   While some Army commanders insist the hard-nosed tactics have been successful in reducing enemy attacks, other military officers believe they are alienating Iraqis and thus depriving American commanders of the public support and human intelligence needed to ferret out threats.   2…The Marines, General Conway says, will try to design their raids to be "laser precise," focused on the enemy with a maximum effort made to avoid endangering or humiliating Iraqi civilians.   3… In that region, American military units have come and gone so often that they have had little time to understand their surroundings. Falluja was initially occupied by the 82nd Airborne Division, which was soon replaced by the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment, which was in turn replaced by the Second Brigade of the Army's Third Infantry Division. In early summer, the Third Infantry Division had some success in helping to establish the local police. But it returned to the United States, handing the town back to the Third Armored Cavalry, which was soon replaced by the 82nd Airborne.   In Iraqi society, which emphasizes personal relationships, the constant rotations have made a difficult job that much harder. So have some tactics: in April, soldiers from the 82nd Airborne based themselves in Falluja and were fired on during an anti-American demonstration. The troops fired back. Iraqis say 17 people were killed and more than 70 wounded, many of them civilians who never fired on the American troops. The 82nd Airborne has disputed that account.   4…Success, Marine commanders say, will ultimately depend winning the trust of a wary Iraqi population. The measure of progress, General Conway says, will not be the number of American raids or enemy dead. It will be tips about potential threats that are provided to the Marines by ordinary Iraqis.” >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>   Since images can be extremely valuable in wartime and other normal propaganda, another interesting piece of the Occupation puzzle is the photo of former POW Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) visiting the Guantanamo prison, quoted saying that while conditions looked adequate there, it was past time for the US to charge these prisoners or release them, "They are human beings. There is such a thing as human rights."   McCain has positioned himself opposing Bush on military and occupation strategy, recently writing an OpEd titled How to Win in Iraq. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14254-2003Nov7.html.   See Military Urged to Try or Free Prisoners @ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60970-2003Dec12.html, and http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/13/politics/13GITM.html See Recruits Abandon Iraqi Army @ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60899-2003Dec12.html See  IDF Training Elite Troops to Assassinate @ http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1102869,00.html, also @ http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1209-03.htm, which contradicts the impression left in the US version; See Tough New Tactics by US Tighten Grip on Iraq Towns @ http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/07/international/middleeast/07TACT.html     George Will: Democracy Under Siege @ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61277-2003Dec12.html KWC wrote: Conservative columnist George Will warns about overreaching to establish democracy in Iraq by comparing notes as Keith has recently about Northern Ireland. But he spends most of his space here describing Putinisms dark side. KH wrote: Well, it's reassuring that someone else has noticed that there are quite close similarities between the Protestants' and Catholics' troubles in Northern Ireland today and the Sunnis and Shias in Iraq. When I wrote my original posting referring to "thousands" of deaths in Northern Ireland I wasn't quite sure how many and I didn't have time to do any research. So, thanks to George Self , I'm now reminded that it's 3,000. But ..... just consider! These 3,000 deaths in the last 30 years (occurring as they did in a so-called developed country) were confined to a relatively small portion of Belfast and one or two small border towns (between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland). The total population that is (still) under stress in NI doesn't compare with that in Iraq -- maybe one twentieth or one fiftieth of the latter in the Sunni region of Iraq and Baghdad. If the American troops ever cause a massacre equivalent in its effect as the one in Derry in NI 30 years ago, then I can only guess with horror what the consequences may be.  I fear that the terrorism that's going on now (the Shias being largely quiescent under the advice of Ayatollah Sistani), is but a pale reflection of what could happen if as stupid a command to American troops were given in the near future as General Ford gave to the British troops in Derry in 1977. Talk about steel walls 20ft high as in Belfast right now, they'll have to be 50ft high! As for Putin's Russia -- well, one can only be anguished as it descends relentlessly into Tsarism again.