Korean Job Discussion Forums

[The Bobster]

It's not just The Bobster saying it this time. Click on the title for the full article.

For the record, The Bobster has much more respect and admiration for the members of the American armed forces than he has for the bozos in Washington who ask them to solve the kinds of problems soldiers should never have been asked to solve in the first place ...

Posted on Sun, Jun. 12, 2005

Military action won't end insurgency, growing number of U.S. officers believe

BY TOM LASSETER

Knight Ridder Newspapers

BAGHDAD, Iraq - (KRT) - A growing number of senior American military officers in Iraq have concluded that there is no long-term military solution to an insurgency that has killed thousands of Iraqis and more than 1,300 U.S. troops during the past two years.

Instead, officers say, the only way to end the guerilla war is through Iraqi politics - an arena that so far has been crippled by divisions between Shiite Muslims, whose coalition dominated the January elections, and Sunni Muslims, who are a minority in Iraq but form the base of support for the insurgency.

"I think the more accurate way to approach this right now is to concede that ... this insurgency is not going to be settled, the terrorists and the terrorism in Iraq is not going to be settled, through military options or military operations," Brig. Gen. Donald Alston, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said last week, in a comment that echoes what other senior officers say. "It's going to be settled in the political process."

Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, expressed similar sentiments, calling the military's efforts "the Pillsbury Doughboy idea" - pressing the insurgency in one area only causes it to rise elsewhere.

"Like in Baghdad," Casey said during an interview with two newspaper reporters, including one from Knight Ridder, last week. "We push in Baghdad - they're down to about less than a car bomb a day in Baghdad over the last week - but in north-center (Iraq) ... they've gone up," he said. "The political process will be the decisive element."

The recognition that a military solution is not in the offing has led U.S. and Iraqi officials to signal they are willing to negotiate with insurgent groups, or their intermediaries.

[Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee]

The US can move its forces to the Kurdish areas - that is the plan anyway.

Let the rest of Iraq deal w/ the insurgents. They can fight them much more effectively cause they can do things that the US could never get away with.

[W.T.Carl]

How little you know of history. The US faced a similar problem in the Philipines. The solution was school books and "Krag 'em and bag 'em". It took a little time, but it worked.

[Gopher]

[deleted]

[Ya-ta Boy]

This is likely. The Sunnis are a minority who had controlled the government since the 20's. Many don't want to accept minority status now, where they can only have a bit of the power. No doubt they fear being treated the way they treated the Shi'ites when they had the power. Reasonable fear.

Most of the attacks now are on Iraqi government people (cops). Most of the deaths are Shi'ite civilians.

The civil war that everyone feared has already started. Only Sunni moderates (if there are any) can stop it by making a political deal with the government and turning in the extremists. The generals are right. Will Bush listen to them? Probably not. He doesn't have a good track record in that department.

[rapier]

The only way to win in Iraq is to kill every one in sight, raze every village to the ground. and poison every well for anyone who is left behind.

You can't win a war of occupation if you don't know who the enemy really is: friend and foe look alike, speak the same language, and blend into the same crowd together. But Every Iraqi knows what a U.S soldier looks like.

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Derrek]

[rapier]

[On the other hand]

[The Bobster]

[Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee]

.

[Ya-ta Boy]

Spengler says in his piece (Why Sunnis Blow Themselves Up) that the situation is a political problem. That makes sense to me. The different kinds of insurgents are blowing up people for a variety of reasons, mostly political. It's about control of a government. This article says much the same thing.

All the talk of Islam, Islam, Islam is obscuring the reality of the situation.

[rok_the-boat]

The kill-em-all option is partly underway, except, you don't have to do anything - they are quite busy killing each other. Thesedays, the Americans are in the middle.

If you wanted it to increase some, all you would have to do is leave the country. Chaos would reign supreme. Absolute anarchy.

[rapier]

if Iraq was strong enough to invade and occuppy the U.S, do you think they'd spare a single infidel? No, neither do I.

Westerners confuse war with humanitarian aid.. they fight with one arm tied behind their backs, they create a hydra everywhere they go. a bit like somalia. you can't kill a few of them, then give their mates food and weapons.
Ultimately non -western countries find unity only in race and religion, and there is no other real distinction to them.