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I heard that the US Military has finally released a "How To Fight An Insurgency" guide
They were talking about it. And I had to turn it off.
See, the manual says that you have to do things like "Not Piss People Off", "Not Kill Innocent People", and shit like that.
And that you have to be careful about this stuff, because it's paradoxical and non-intuitive.
The manual says everything that liberal bloggers have been saying about how this war should be fought. We have been right all along.
And it BAFFLES me that it's possible to NOT know these things. They're totally obvious. If you kill someone, then their family will be mad at you. That's not really THAT difficult a concept, is it? If people have jobs and a decent life and stuff, they'll be less likely to kill you. THIS is a paradoxical concept?
And I started to feel sick to my stomach as I began to really realize that this war has been fought by people who don't understand this.
And I began to feel guilty. For a number of reasons. One is that I'm an American, and I live in a representative democracy, and my representative democracy sent people who don't understand people to occupy a country. And that's my fault. Oh, maybe it's only 1/3,000,000th my fault, but if you figure that 100,000 people have died because of the war, as the Lancet figures, I'm still responsible for 1/30th of a death. Which is worth some guilt.
And another reason.
This shit is obvious to me. Apparently, I have a mindset that would have made this whole occupation less nasty and bloody and horrifying if people in charge of the occupation shared it.
And that means that I should be THERE.
I should have joined the military. I should have joined ROTC in college (although Brandeis didn't have one), and I should have become an officer, and I should have been in a position to help shape these policies so that we would have gone into the situation with this knowledge.
Or SOMETHING. I don't know. Maybe I was right not to join the military, maybe I wouldn't have been able to change things like that.
But. . . there has to be SOMETHING I could have done. How is it possible that ANYONE can't simply intuit almost all of the information that's in the new guide? I mean, the historical perspective is neat, and the classification of insurgency types is useful, but the "how to do it" section is all totally obvious.
See, the manual says that you have to do things like "Not Piss People Off", "Not Kill Innocent People", and shit like that.
And that you have to be careful about this stuff, because it's paradoxical and non-intuitive.
The manual says everything that liberal bloggers have been saying about how this war should be fought. We have been right all along.
And it BAFFLES me that it's possible to NOT know these things. They're totally obvious. If you kill someone, then their family will be mad at you. That's not really THAT difficult a concept, is it? If people have jobs and a decent life and stuff, they'll be less likely to kill you. THIS is a paradoxical concept?
And I started to feel sick to my stomach as I began to really realize that this war has been fought by people who don't understand this.
And I began to feel guilty. For a number of reasons. One is that I'm an American, and I live in a representative democracy, and my representative democracy sent people who don't understand people to occupy a country. And that's my fault. Oh, maybe it's only 1/3,000,000th my fault, but if you figure that 100,000 people have died because of the war, as the Lancet figures, I'm still responsible for 1/30th of a death. Which is worth some guilt.
And another reason.
This shit is obvious to me. Apparently, I have a mindset that would have made this whole occupation less nasty and bloody and horrifying if people in charge of the occupation shared it.
And that means that I should be THERE.
I should have joined the military. I should have joined ROTC in college (although Brandeis didn't have one), and I should have become an officer, and I should have been in a position to help shape these policies so that we would have gone into the situation with this knowledge.
Or SOMETHING. I don't know. Maybe I was right not to join the military, maybe I wouldn't have been able to change things like that.
But. . . there has to be SOMETHING I could have done. How is it possible that ANYONE can't simply intuit almost all of the information that's in the new guide? I mean, the historical perspective is neat, and the classification of insurgency types is useful, but the "how to do it" section is all totally obvious.
no subject
This med-evac group was supporting a Marine unit that moved up into Kuwait and then Iraq. Even the Marines bringing in POW's did things by the book. I didn't see any evidence of hostility by the Marines towards the Iraqis. They were just an enemy to be dealt with.
Even though I disagreed with why we were there and with our stated aims (I believed it was engineered to give us a grab at Iraqi oil), I was very proud to see the way Air Force, Navy and Marine forces carried out their duties. Looked like the best of the late '40's/early 50's WWII movies.
When I heard about how small a force was going in this second time, I knew it was going to be a mess. The regular folk were already pissed at and not trusting the U.S., after we told them to revolt and then abandoned them to Saddam's reprisals. Thought the only way to work this would be to base ourselves in the north, with the Kurds, and then try to influence things at a distance. That may be the U.S.'s only way out now.
Contrast Iraq with Yugoslavia. We went in, with NATO support, did not lose a single U.S. soldier and created peace. Weird. Wonder what the difference was.
no subject
an excerpt of the speech given by Colonel Tim Collins of the 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment, prior to the start of the invasion of Iraq in 2003...
"There are some who are alive at this moment who will not be alive shortly. Those who do not wish to go on that journey, we will not send. As for the others, I expect you to rock their world. Wipe them out if that is what they choose. But if you are ferocious in battle remember to be magnanimous in victory... If there are casualties of war then remember that when they woke up and got dressed in the morning they did not plan to die this day. Allow them dignity in death. Bury them properly and mark their graves."