US Adopts New Tactics in Iraq Guerilla War

[leftchick]

<snip>
But the officials denied the move was modeled on hard-nosed tactics used by Israeli forces in Gaza and the West Bank, despite visits by U.S. military officers to Israel this year to discuss urban combat with Israel Defense Forces (IDF).


"In recent weeks, we have begun using a much-increased tempo of taking the fight to remnants of the former regime to prevent them from planning and carrying out attacks on our people," one of the U.S. defense officials, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters.


"This is new in that we are engaging (attacking) buildings for two reasons - if we find they were used to plan or launch strikes against our forces, or if we have information that arms were being made or kept there for attacks," the official added.

Another confirmed a New York Times report that some family members of guerrillas wanted by the military were being arrested. But he said it was not a pressure tactic to coerce insurgents to surrender.

"We don't do kidnapping. We are arresting relatives if it becomes known that they are coordinating with those high-value targets that we are seeking, or if they have information where fugitives are holding out," the official said.

The Times reported from Iraq that at least one whole Iraqi village had been surrounded by razor wire as part of the crackdown, forcing residents to enter and leave through an American military checkpoint. That is similar to isolation tactics used by Israel in its war with insurgents.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&e=6&u=/nm/20031208/ts_nm/iraq_usa_tactics_dc_1

[Hobarticus]

1. "Arresting"??? On what charge?

Sounds like kidnapping and/or extortion to me.

[Gloria]

2. Didn't they announce "new tactics" just a few weeks ago???

I know we're rolling out product line here, but come on, can't they get a more creative slogan going??

[Hobarticus]

4. New contest among service personall in Iraq!

The winner of "Name That New Military Offensive" gets a ticket home!

[UpInArms]

8. probably in a "transfer tube"

n/t

[BlueCollar]

14. Operation

"Intimidate a town for the Chimp"

[Dhalgren]

25. "Operation, This hole is too deep, so keep digging"

This has become completely hopeless. The time is passed due for concerted civil actions on our parts. The longer we put it off, the worse it will be. Remeber the sixties, it wasn't all sit-ins and peace rallies, some of it was "burn, baby, burn".

[Jacobin]

3. Taking lessons from the IDF???????

Ooooo....these guys are really really bright.

/sarcasm

[Kitsune]

5. Wow, so it's a guerilla war now?

I thought it was just a bunch of regime loyalists participating in futile, disorganized attacks on the owners liberators of the Iraqi oil people! Shows what I know.

[BlueCollar]

15. One man's terrorist

is another man's freedom fighter...

Ronald Reagan

[NNN0LHI]

20. I believe he was talking about Osama bin Laden in that statement? n/t

[ScrewyRabbit]

6. Sounds like we got our tactics from Latin America dictatorships

..."disappear" the relatives of anyone who causes trouble.

[RedEarth]

7. Well, the tactics used by the Israelis sure seem to be working....

gosh, I bet there hasn't been an attack there in at least 24 hours. It's also a great way to win the hearts and minds of the people in Iraq.

[UpInArms]

9. to "model" our military

offensive after the failed tactics of Israel mades me even more wretched (if that is possible) about our involvement in Iraq.

Failed states are the only ones that believe they can force their doctrine down the throat of people with the barrel of a gun.

Those are the weakest of principles -- if they do not stand the light of day and are not openly embraced - to liberate from life into the forced government of an occupying army -- that can be imagined

I weep for the remnants of my country :cry:

[loudnclear]

10. Wow!! Buildings of mass destruction (BMDs)

We attack buildings...people are collateral damage.

[IndianaGreen]

11. Holding hostages is a war crime

We are no better than the Nazis!

Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War
UN Document Series Symbol: ST/HR/
UN Issuing Body: Secretariat Centre for Human Rights
© United Nations

Article 3

In the case of armed conflict not of an international character occurring in the territory of one of the High Contracting Parties, each Party to the conflict shall be bound to apply, as a minimum, the following provisions:

1. Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria.

To this end, the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:

(a) Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;

(b) Taking of hostages;

(c) Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment;

http://www.hri.ca/uninfo/treaties/93.shtml

[RenoUnd]

12. Re: "Holding hostages is a war crime"

If you read what you posted, you would find that that only applies to "the above-mentioned persons," referring to "Persons taking no active part in the hostilities."

Do you wish to claim that people who "are coordinating with those high-value targets that we are seeking, or if they have information where fugitives are holding out" are taking no active part in the hostilities?

[Tempest]

16. What about the U.S. holding family members?

The U.S. is holding family members hoping to flush out the "above-mentioned persons".

That is a war crime. Period.

[RenoUnd]

18. Re: "What about the U.S. holding family members?"

If they have information about insurgent attackers and/or are cooperating with them, of course they should be held, juts as anybody else should be. Does the fact that they are members of their family, or not, change that circumstance? No, it's all the same.

[NickB79]

21. Start investing in prisons

"If they have information about insurgent attackers and/or are cooperating with them, of course they should be held, juts as anybody else should be."

Iraqi society is a very interwoven system; what you just said describes MILLIONS of Iraqis. Do you suggest we start arresting them all?

You feel its all the same when children are held as hostages and bargaining chips? Also, if they're not truly hostages, but only being arrested as they should be under international law, why are we suggesting we'll release them if the men we're after turn themselves in?

[RenoUnd]

22. Re: "Start investing in prisons"

Iraqi society is a very interwoven system; what you just said describes MILLIONS of Iraqis. Do you suggest we start arresting them all?

Whoever can help us arrest the insurgent attackers who are responsible for the deaths of U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians, yes.

You feel its all the same when children are held as hostages and bargaining chips?

I'll get along fine without you putting words in my mouth, thanks. I didn't say anything about children being used as bargaining chips, and neither did the article.

Also, if they're not truly hostages, but only being arrested as they should be under international law, why are we suggesting we'll release them if the men we're after turn themselves in?

Because we no longer need the information they hold from us. I thought that would seem obvious enough. Are you suggesting instead that we hold them for no reason?

[NickB79]

17. Yes, I'm sure that

The young sons and daughters (5-12 yrs old) I've read of US troops "arresting" are actively involved in the battles. *sarcasm*

Are you so blind as to believe that? We're arresting entire families, wives, grandparents, children for God's sake!

[RenoUnd]

19. Re: "Yes, I'm sure that"

Are there any particular incidents you are referring to? Please bring them forth, if they are relevant to this discussion, so I can read about them and we can discuss them.

[jukes]

27. coordinating with those high-value targets...

RenoUnd!

I got this cherry used car you're just gonna LOVE!

[UpInArms]

13. related article: Concrete, razor wire, ID cards

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1208/dailyUpdate.html

excerpt:

The new strategy applied by the US military "appears to be succeeding in diminishing the threat to American soldiers," reports the Times. "But it appears to be coming at the cost of alienating many of the people the Americans are trying to win over." The Times quoted one of the Iraqi civilians lining up at a checkpoint in the Iraqi town of Abu Hishma as saying: "I see no difference between us and the Palestinians. We didn't expect anything like this after Saddam fell."

"The Americans' insistence that they 'liberated' Iraq from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein's grotesque regime would suffer greatly from comparison to the internationally condemned Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip," writes Ed Blanche in The Daily Star. Nonetheless, as Mr. Blanche points out, US and Israeli officials confirm such contacts are underway.

Many of the tactics employed by US forces in Iraq in recent days to counter a sharp escalation in attacks by insurgents bear striking similarities to those used by the Israelis against Palestinian militants in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip - a greater use of air power, surface-to-surface missiles, round-the-clock surveillance by unmanned aerial vehicles of suspected guerrilla centers, large-scale search- and-seize operations, cracking down on a sullen, increasingly hostile civilian population.

Baghdad's "Green Zone" is an example of the separate worlds concrete and razor wire can create. As The Washington Post reports, the four-square-mile area is encircled by 15-foot concrete walls and rings of barbed wire and includes Mr. Hussein's presidential palace compound, which is now the headquarters of the Coalition Provisional Authority.

[pippin]

23. probably will

engage in routinely killing children a la Afghanistan style next. As for:
"The Times reported from Iraq that at least one whole Iraqi village had been surrounded by razor wire as part of the crackdown, forcing residents to enter and leave through an American military checkpoint. " sounds like concentration camps to me.

[0007]

24. The U.S. will try to make all of Iraq a concentration camp to gain control

of the oil. I'm absolutely surprised that Chabali is still walking around.

[Dhalgren]

26. He's only walking around

inside the "Green Zone" - or the "Green Square Mile". And as Elvis said "What's so funny 'bout peace, love, and understanding?" Well, he wrote that before Emperor George (Christos)I ascended to the throne. Now, I think we need a little more Jefferson Airplane or Jefferson Starship. "It's a strong wind that blows against the Empire."