10 Steps to Victory in Iraq

By: Ish124c41 - [social]
Slow Bleed on the Killing Ground

Now we are engaged in a guerrilla war in Iraq. The enemy pecks at us, inflicting a series of small, bleeding wounds. They hope thereby to so irritate us that we leave.

We have fought guerrilla wars before. Indeed, we have been guerrillas. But we seem not to remember the lessons we should have learned from those experiences.

Our last large scale experience with guerrilla warfare was the Vietnam War.

In order to extricate ourselves from that war, we had to initiate the Phoenix program, in which we murdered thousands of the enemy, and we had to commit an act of unprecedented brutality, the Christmas bombings. Similar resolve on our part will be necessary in the war on terrorism. Otherwise, more Americans die.

Iraq is but one theater in a global fight against terrorism. Our conduct there should emerge from guiding principles in the overall war on terrorism.

To date, the United States has been far too deferential toward saving Iraqi lives at the expense of American lives. We must correct that.

We have to place more importance on American lives than on Iraqi lives. We have to place more importance on American lives than on terrorist lives. We have to place more importance on American lives than on terrorists' families lives.

Strategic Principles

The guiding principles we learn from the past are:

o We have to go all out in this war. There can be no half measures. With our survival at stake, we have to set aside temporarily our civilized principles and take whatever actions are necessary to prevail.

o We have to countenance torture and murder and bring back the equivalent of the Phoenix program used in the Vietnam War. The Phoenix program was designed to gather intelligence, infiltrate enemy units, and eliminate the enemy's hierarchy. The North Vietnamese feared it.

Congress may be required to pass new laws to accommodate this, and the President to sign them, although the current legislation authorizing the President to pursue the war on terror appears broad enough to encompass the needs.

o We have to stop trying to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. They no more asked us to invade Iraq than the Saxons invited the Normans to England. It is their cooperation we require, not their love.

o We have to get out our message, "If you work with us, we will work with you. If you work against us, we will destroy you utterly." We cannot allow the mullahs to preach against us in the mosques, and we need to control communication channels such as the newspapers, radio stations, television stations, and the Internet to our advantage.

Tactics

Strategy provides guidance; tactics provide actions. Here are actions for the US to take:

1. Beef Up the Number of Troops in Iraq and in Our Military

Despite protestations from some, the plain truth is we need more troops in Iraq, we need the right kind of troops, and we need a larger military worldwide than we have for the responsibilities we are laying on them.

During the Second World War, the United States armed forces had 12 million active duty military personnel. This represented 9% of the American people, so roughly one out of ten Americans was in the service.

Today, our country's survival is once again at stake. Our population has more than doubled from 131 million to 288 million people. But our active duty armed forces have shrunk to 1.4 million people, less than one-eighth the size we once had. We depend on about one-half of one percent of the population for our defense. What kind of effort is that?

2. Control the Borders in Iraq

One of the reasons we need more troops in Iraq is that we do not control the borders. They are a sieve through which enemies from abroad infiltrate. To better protect our troops we need to stop the influx. Further, we need to fix the enemy in place and hammer them. Controlling the borders will help us do that.

3. Issue National Photo Identity Cards in Iraq

Another way to protect our troops is to be able to differentiate who belongs in an area from who doesn't. To do that, we should establish a national photo identity card system. This would give our troops a mechanism to roughly screen suspicious persons, much as when a motorist is pulled over for a driving infraction. The requisite technology is readily available. The utility of national identify papers has been demonstrated in other societies during other wars and would obtain here.

4. Deny Sanctuaries for the Enemy

The enemy cannot be allowed to escape across a border for sanctuary in another country. One of the lessons we should have learned from the Vietnam War is that no sanctuaries can be allowed. Neighboring countries must be put on notice that we will pursue the enemy wherever the trail takes us, and we will cross any border to do that. Whoever interposes himself in our path does so at his peril. We need the boots on the ground to carry this out.

Resurrect Techniques That Worked

5. Insert Spies in the Iraqi Population and Develop Informants

The volume and quality of intelligence used to support the invasion of Iraq have been questionable. The United States intelligence apparatus appears to have relied on technical wizardry and signals analysis over human intelligence collection. Better on the ground intelligence networks need to be developed to inform the planning of military operations. We need spies embedded in the population.

6. Bring Back Ambushes and Take the War to the Enemy

One of the most successful counter guerrilla techniques during the Vietnam War was night time ambushes. Sniper teams dispersed before nightfall and settled in. After nightfall they moved to a new location, set up the ambush, and shot the enemy when they appeared. Modern technology will make this technique even more effective than it was in the past. We must take the war to the enemy.

To do that even more effectively, we should recall our best retired guerrilla fighters from the Vietnam War back to active duty. They can advise us on best practices based on hard experience.

7. Bury Terrorists in Pigskins?

The United States fought Islamic warriors, termed Moros, in the Philippines around the beginning of the twentieth century. The Moros were tough; stopping them was hard. The Moros were so hard to stop that the military developed the .45 automatic to up their firepower.

According to some sources, Army General Blackjack Pershing found the solution to dealing with the Moros. He ordered that they be shot with bullets greased with pig fat and that they be buried wrapped in pigskins. This prevented the Moros, according to Islam, from going to heaven. The details vary from version to version, and suspicion exists that it never happened. Whatever the truth of it, this interesting story might possibly be instructive for something to try.

8. Use Psychological Warfare to Demoralize the Enemy

As stated, our message is, "If you work with us, we will work with you. If you work against us, we will destroy you utterly."

To that end, mullahs should not be allowed to preach against us. Those that do so should be given one warning, and, if they persist, summarily executed.

Communication channels such as the newspapers, radio stations, and television stations should be monitored, and, if they operate against us, they should be shut down. Access to the Internet should be denied to the Iraqis until such time as an acceptable Iraqi government is in place. Cell phone communication should be monitored for intelligence gathering.

Torture should be permitted to extract information to save American lives. We have already seen one instance where this was necessary. If a change in American laws is required for this, Congress should pass the necessary legislation and the President should sign it.

The communication channels should be used to present to the Iraqis the truth of what life is like for ordinary people in democracies.

o That individuals are free to make their own life choices.

o That women are equals.

o That Iraqi lives can be better, but they will have to take the responsibility to make it happen.

Perhaps a day can be chosen, and Americans from all walks of life can be asked to write a diary of their day. Selections from these diaries could then be broadcast every day to the Iraqis so they can know the truth of us.

9. Kill Terrorists' Families to the Last Member

Many terrorist strikes have involved suicide bombers. They sacrificed themselves to achieve religious and political goals. To date, they knew their actions did not injure their families. That must stop.

They must now know with complete certainty that when they attack us, when they kill themselves, they kill their loved ones at the same time. The United States must execute the families of terrorists.

This includes their mothers, their fathers, their wives, their husbands, their children, their grandparents, their aunts, their uncles, and their cousins, and whoever else we can find until their family is extirpated from the face of the Earth.

This reprisal must be inexorable and unrelenting. =09 We should immediately start by executing the families of the terrorists who destroyed the World Trade Center. This includes all of the Bin Laden family.

The wife of one of the terrorists was very anxious to move back to Saudi Arabia with her new refrigerator before September 11, 2001. I think we should put her head in its freezer.

If a change in American laws is required for this, Congress should pass the necessary legislation and the President should sign it.

10. Disperse the Population of Tikrit and Fallujah Among the Shia

Chairman Mao noted that guerrillas swim in the sea of the people.

A large number of the attacks against American forces have come from the so-called Sunni triangle of Baghdad, Tikrit, and Fallujah. The social organization of the people in this area allows or facilitates the guerrilla operations.

Accordingly, a tactic to weaken that social organization is to disperse the population of Fallujah and Tikrit among the Shia in the south of the country. Neighborhoods should be fragmented and their populations separated and scattered.

This should enfeeble them and reduce the attacks on American forces. Dispersing other population centers should be undertaken as necessary.

Make the Other Poor Dumb Bastard Die for His Country

In sum, the ten tactics which flow from the strategic principles provide options for extricating ourselves from the mess in Iraq. The tactics are based on experiences in other wars in other lands. They worked.

They lie on a continuum from the benign to the brutal. We can select as many of them as we find necessary. I provide them here because I haven't heard anybody offer anything better.

xxx

=A9 Copyright David Chananie 2003 All rights reserved.

Dr. David Chananie is an expert on the Vietnam war. He speaks internationally on radio talk shows about the topic: "Let's Remember Vietnam, Not Repeat It." His latest book is Not Yet At Ease: Photographs of America's Continuing Engagement With the Vietnam War. Writer's Digest and the Publishers Marketing Association have both awarded prizes for this book.

Please visit http://www.NotYetAtEase.com for more information. The "Essays" section contains other articles and more than 150 free pictures of the Vietnam Memorial and associated activities.

This is an intellectual product to use in the fight against terrorism mandated under the provisions of the Homeland Security legislation.






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