Billmon's long post on the current turn in counterinsurgency warfare in Iraq is worth reading in full.
<< But now -- five downed helicopters and a bunch of dead GIs later -- we're back to the "iron-fisted" approach. Only it isn't especially iron-fisted, at least by Middle Eastern standards. Certainly not when compared to Saddam, or even the Israelis. And if the Israel Defense Force hasn't been able to crush resistance in the occupied territories, despite almost 20 years of calibrated repression, it's hard to see how the Army can accomplish the same goal in the Sunni Triangle in the months remaining before Operation Bug Out begins in earnest.
<< For all the Army's efforts to "show 'em we got teeth," I personally think the message being conveyed by this latest crackdown is one of strategic confusion and political desperation.
<< The U.S. military has spent the three decades since Vietnam trying to avoid having to fight wars like this -- instead of teaching itself ways to win them. Now it's trying to figure it out on the fly. But the Army's idea of a fresh counterinsurgency strategy still appears to be calling in another round of air strikes. So somebody -- Gen. Sanchez, Rumsfeld, the neocons, the White House -- has reached for the Israeli playbook.
<< Which is very ironic, given that the Israel Defense Force itself is in the middle of a huge crisis of confidence (and conscience) over that same playbook. >>
It certainly looks at this point like Bush and Rummy's invasion of Iraq has put the US and our soldiers in a nasty position. If we pull out soon, it will be a disaster. If we stay with the current level of troops, it will continue to be the disaster it is now. And we can't escalate the troops in the immediate future, because the US doesn't currently have either the number of troops or the troops with counterinsurgency training to make it into something other than a disaster.
Do I need to add that we can't expect help from anyone else?
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