Counterinsurgency run amok

[bemildred]

Cool! Hardt and Negri have a new book out.

Whom are you going to trust: Fallujah civilians who risked their lives to escape, witnesses such as Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein, hospital doctors, Amnesty International, top United Nations human-rights official Louise Arbour, the International Committee of the Red Cross; or the Pentagon and US-installed Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi?

On the humanitarian front, Fallujah is a tragedy. The city has virtually been reduced to rubble. Remaining residents, the Red Cross confirms, are eating roots and burying the dead in their gardens. There's no medicine in the hospitals to help anybody. The wounded are left to die in the streets - their remains to be consumed by packs of stray dogs. As Iraqresistance.net, a Europe-wide collective, puts it, "World governments, international organizations, nobody raises a finger to stop the killing." The global reaction is apathy.

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On the military front, roughly 3,000 urban guerrillas with mortars, Kalashnikovs and rocket-propelled grenades have resisted more than 12,000 marines supported by F-16s, AC-130 gunships, Cobra and Apache helicopters, an array of missiles, 500-pound and 2,000-pound bombs, tanks and Bradleys. Sources in Baghdad close to the resistance tell Asia Times Online that at least 200 marines are dead, and more than 800 wounded. The Pentagon - exercising total media blackout - will only admit to about 50 dead and 350 wounded. Allawi and his cabinet are spinning more than 1,600 "insurgents" dead; the resistance so far only admits to a little more than 100.

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In Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire (Penguin Press, New York, 2004), Tony Negri and Michael Hardt, discussing counterinsurgencies, point out how "guerrilla forces cannot survive without the support of the population and a superior knowledge of the social and physical terrain". They could be describing the guerrillas in the Sunni triangle. "Guerrillas force the dominant military power to live in a state of perpetual paranoia." In asymmetrical wars like Vietnam and Iraq, US counterinsurgency tactics must not only lead to a military victory but to control of the enemy with "social, political, ideological and psychological weapons". There's ample evidence these tactics are failing in Iraq.

Asia Times

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[bemildred]

2. As near as I can figure, people just make shit up. nt

[el_gato]

3. that is acknowledged in the article

[colonel odis]

4. the u.s. lost the "war" with abu-ghraib. now it's losing

what little self-respect it might have.

it lost me yesterday when i saw marines coolly pumping bullets into unarmed wounded in a mosque.

though it's been building for a while, this may be the beginning of the u.s.'s downward spiral. as the world begins to snub us, diplomatically and economically, india, china, and russia will step in to fill the void.

with our image as a force of good in the world exposed as laughably hypocritical, we can look for our influence to diminish from here on out.

and when things begin to get bad here, the big question will be whether bush is removed by his own citizens or by a foreign power.

[Niccolo_Macchiavelli]

5. will the US-citizen be stronger than germans were about 70 years ago?

Its somehow sad to see the States, once the earth around root to the democratic enlightment, in such a state. I really hope you'll get you backyards cleaned else that planet is going to be hackmeat in the microwave.

[Name removed]

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[HamdenRice]

7. BETS, BETS -- I'M TAKING BETS!!!

On how long this Freeper has until his is deep sixed. Let's see. It's 4:55 pm EST. Champ lists a militarist web site as his web site in his profile. And he's only just registered?

Any bets on how long till the Mods delete his post and ID?

<EDITED>

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

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[HamdenRice]

9. I would thoroughly enjoy debating ...

but I suspect that your posts won't be around for long and then my posts would look like a one-sided conversation.

[Name removed]

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[HamdenRice]

12. Data?

What is the source of your assertion that "so few" civilian casualties were suffered? Much of the world's press is reporting a humanitarian catastrophe.

And, only the most simple minded person looking military action fails to understand that war is a means to a political end. Although the US forces prevailed militarily, the slaughter has made the political goals now utterly impossible to achieve.

From Fallujah in Pictures blog
http://fallujapictures.blogspot.com/


An Iraqi nurse treats 2-year-old child Mustafa Adnan, at a Baghdad hospital, who lost a leg when his house in Falluja's Jolan district was shelled during fighting between U.S. forces and insurgents in the war-torn city November 14, 2004. (Ali Jasim/Reuters)



These appear to be children in short pants, killed in Fallujah



Family members spend the Eid al-Fitr holiday with nine-year-old SaharMamod at Yarmook Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Nov. 14, 2004, asshe recovers from a gunshot shot wound suffered during clashes between U.S. troops and insurgents in Baghdad four days earlier. (APPhoto/Samir Mizban)

[Name removed]

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[colonel odis]

14. gullible little feller, aren't you?

but if you support bush, then you would have to be gullible.

personally, the silver lining in bush's victory is that people like you will get drafted and have your ass shot to pieces by "insurgents" in some desert shithole.

while you're doing your physical therapy and attending support groups for how to deal with the rest of your life in a wheelchair, think about which way you pulled the lever a couple of weeks ago.

when the govt bills you for getting your legs blown off, think about what a class act george w. is. think about his uplifting morals.

and when you listen to your little talk shows and hear fellow freepers calling in to talk about cutting disability payments and you hear in their voices that they consider you a leech and a drain on the system, think about the fact that halliburton humvees had better armor on them than your govt issue one.

best of all, this isn't trying to scare you into voting for kerry. you already voted for bush. the wheels are in motion now, son. it's about to happen and the next thing you know, your ass will be in the crosshairs of a jihadist's rocket launcher.

enjoy!



on edit: judging by the spelling and syntax in your post, you're prime military material. or fodder.

[Name removed]

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[colonel odis]

17. which part was the insult?

being called gullible? a "little feller"? or that i mentioned how bad your spelling was. that's a factual matter; a word's either spelled correctly or it isn't.

clear it up for me, private pyle. which insult we talking about?

[HamdenRice]

18. Your response ...

should be in a kind of hall of fame for great responses to idiots!

[colonel odis]

10. speaking of freepers, they're all over the place these days.

what's up with that?

[HamdenRice]

13. I think it's

a full moon tonight.

[teryang]

19. Excellent post BE

If I want to find some good info quickly, I just put your moniker into the search function.

We've been talking about what is described in this article since the beginning.

[ooglymoogly]

20. don't you understand

the Pentagon and puppet alowi are speaking bushspeak. you had better learn to speak it because it is now the language of the land and coming directly to you from the burning bush. heil uberales sighned uberales bushit.