Reply #24: Guerrilla Bodies, Sir

[The Magistrate]

Always have the tactical initiative: that is rather in the nature of the beast.

The Iraqi venture, of course, is a mere sideshow in the fight against radical Islam. Destruction of Hussein's government harmed them not at all. Occupation of the place does give them a plentitude of targets, and it could be justified on the usual lines of operation against guerrillas, which chiefly constitute enticing them into concentration in circumstances which permit use of annihilating firepower against them. It is not a promising venue for the technique, because the whole country can hardly be rendered a beaten zone, and concentration in Iraq, relative to the rest of the world, hardly matches concentration around a particular hill-top, where the aircradt and artillery can strike. Nothing done in Iraq will materially harm the movement of radical Islamicist fundamentalism, and it may well excite and enlarge it, on a world scale.

Strategic initiative is in reach of governmental forces in contest with guerrilla bodies. It is best applied by political and economic measures. Turning Afghanistan into a prosperous show-place, which could have been done for a fraction of the funds currently squandered in Iraq, would have been a shrewd blow against the Islamicist radicals. A sensible leader would have done that. Forcing a solution of the conflict between Arab Palestine and Israel would be a similarly effective blow against the hostile religious movement, and could be done by a sensible and ruthless leader, willing to use all available leverage against both sides.

The combination of drying up a principal source of recruitment, and demonstrating that those who reject the radicals will prosper, is fatal to such insurrectionist movements.