Experts: U.S. using wrong tactics
Fighting in Iraq likely to stay at same level
By Stephen J. Hedges
Washington Bureau
Published June 17, 2006
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0606170142jun17,1,1851065.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed&ctrack=1&cset=trueWASHINGTON -- Despite the recent killing of insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, some former military officials and experts worry that the U.S. has not learned the lessons of counterinsurgency warfare in Iraq and that, as a result, a significant improvement in the fighting may not be around the corner.
In confronting a frustratingly resilient insurgency, the U.S. is relying heavily on precision bombing, which destroys buildings and can kill civilians, generating ill will. Tactics used in house clearings have led to incidents such as an alleged massacre by Marines in the town of Haditha. Large incursions into the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi have bred dissatisfaction among ordinary Iraqis, violating a cardinal principle of counterinsurgency.
A `losing' tactic
The increased use of air strikes, said G.I. Wilson, a retired Marine colonel who recently finished a second tour in Iraq and who writes frequently on fighting insurgents, "means that you're losing. A 500-pound bomb causes a lot of destruction."
Bush said in December that about 30,000 Iraqi citizens had died "as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence." Although some of those deaths can be attributed to al-Zarqawi's campaign of car bombing and suicide attacks,
Iraqi civilian deaths have continued in a spate of car bombings and shootings since al-Zarqawi's death.
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