Tough New Tactics by U.S. Tighten Grip on Iraq Towns

[UpInArms]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/07/international/middleeast/07TACT.html?ex=1071378000&?en=b9c5e965e018edf1&?ei=5062&?partner=GOOGLE

ABU HISHMA, Iraq, Dec. 6 — As the guerrilla war against Iraqi insurgents intensifies, American soldiers have begun wrapping entire villages in barbed wire.

In selective cases, American soldiers are demolishing buildings thought to be used by Iraqi attackers. They have begun imprisoning the relatives of suspected guerrillas, in hopes of pressuring the insurgents to turn themselves in.

The Americans embarked on their get- tough strategy in early November, goaded by what proved to be the deadliest month yet for American forces in Iraq, with 81 soldiers killed by hostile fire. The response they chose is beginning to echo the Israeli counterinsurgency campaign in the occupied territories.

So far, the new approach appears to be succeeding in diminishing the threat to American soldiers. But it appears to be coming at the cost of alienating many of the people the Americans are trying to win over. Abu Hishma is quiet now, but it is angry, too.

...more...

turning entire villages into concentration camps behind the concertina wires?

more hearts and minds won, but for who?

[onebigbadwulf]

1. Umm...

if you bulldoze my house and kidnap my family, I have no choice but to kill you.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

2. Posted a bit last night where 1500 soldiers raided an apartment

complex in the middle of the night and removed anything and anyone they felt like w/o any sort of due process... And meanwhile * is singining: http://www.tpdada.art.pl/wabik/mp3/Beksinski/Monty%20Python%20-%20Always%20Look%20On%20The%20Bright%20Side%20Of%20Life.mp3

[pfitz59]

3. "hamlet program" - AKA Vietnam......

US has done this before, with little success. I'm sure the tunnels and work-arounds are already in play. Resistance will find a way.

[psychopomp]

9. Just what I was thinking

"You have to understand the Arab mind," Capt. Todd Brown, a company commander with the Fourth Infantry Division, said as he stood outside the gates of Abu Hishma. "The only thing they understand is force — force, pride and saving face."

?????????????????????

[Capt_Nemo]

10. What it means is that Capt. Todd Brown doesn't understand shit...

...other than the crap he learned from the neo-cons...

And since he doesn't understand shit about the place and the people
in the country he's currently living in, his survival abilities are
somewhat compromised. His karma is on his way...

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition

The only thing they understand is force — force, pride and saving face.
The only three things they understand are force, pride and saving face, and 5 thousand years of civilisation.
I'll come in again.

[Barrett808]

4. "The only thing they understand is force..."

"You have to understand the Arab mind," Capt. Todd Brown, a company commander with the Fourth Infantry Division, said as he stood outside the gates of Abu Hishma. "The only thing they understand is force — force, pride and saving face."

[davhill]

12. The big trouble with that

Is that Hollywood movies and Bush foriegn policy have convinced them, and most of the world, that violence is the only language that we understand. Let's try to understanding the workings of the American mind.

[Barrett808]

5. "With a heavy dose of fear and violence..."

"With a heavy dose of fear and violence, and a lot of money for projects, I think we can convince these people that we are here to help them," Colonel Sassaman said.

You can't write better satire than that.

[truthisfreedom]

6. WE'RE TRYING *SMACK* TO FREAKING *SMACK* HELP *SMACK* YOU! *SMACK*

CAN'T YOU FREAKING *SMACK* GET IT THROUGH YOUR FREAKING *SMACK* HEADS?

this is a war started by illegitamate leadership and run by immature uneducated malicious freaks. everything about this stinks of an attempt by bushco to start a holy oil war, world war three, that will be perpetual in nature.

[leftchick]

7. Look at This Shit!

A Sunni man in Abu Hishma posed for a photograph last week with the number for his identification card.

.....Are fucking concentration camp tatoos next?!? God help these people....

[number6]

8. Liberation?? , yea sure ....

:crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy: ..... :smoke:

[ninkasi]

13. This disgusts me...

from the article

"In selective cases, American soldiers are demolishing buildings thought to be used by Iraqi attackers. They have begun imprisoning the relatives of suspected guerrillas, in hopes of pressing the insurgents to turn themselves in."

When did we become so uncivilized? Isn't this against the Geneva Convention, in addition to being against every aspect of ethics and morality?

[Just Me]

14. This is awful,...

,...the remnants of human dignity is being spat upon,...

,...and I suppose the freakin' new dictators expect to suppress a whole people with their standards of isolation and violence,...

,...I believe they are wrong,...unless, of course, per that previous post, their objective is to stir up that next world war that Woosley infamously spewed out about,...

,...sickening,...