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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated

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To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (215714)	8/15/2007 9:37:13 AM
From: unclewest	Read Replies (3) of 794003

Does anybody think that Al Qaeda blew up a bunch of Yazidis in the back of beyond in Northwest Iraq because they're getting a bad name on the Arab street for killing so many Muslims, so they decided to kill some infidels instead? They certainly got their headlines. Who can guard every village against a group that thinks killing a bunch of poor people far from the conflict is their success for the day? No surprise here. This is text book stuff. To have any possibility of getting the support of the population, we must secure areas after we clear them. We went into that area recently...took out some bad guys and left...leaving the population unsecure. That game is called whack-a-mole. It is an exercise in futility. Or worse, it is a formula for failure. Military literature (old and new) on counterinsurgency, says operating this way will result in massive punishment of the population by the insurgents. We made a fundamental error of the highest order. The likely result is any remaining Kurd support for us will diminish rapidly in that area. See US Army - USMC - Counterinsurgency Field Manual, published 2007, with Foreword by General David H Petraeus and Lt. General James F. Amos Pg 50. "Tactical success means nothing." Pg 51. Table 1-1 - "Unsuccessful Practices" The first unsuccessful practice listed is, "Overemphasize killing and capturing the enemy rather than securing and engaging the population." We should not even operate in areas we cannot control after the tactical combat operation is completed. You will find that in the textbooks too. Our conventional army looks good on paper. We can always count on them looking good on the paper they write on. That is not difficult to accomplish. Even Enron looked good on their own paper.

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