Iraq:...get a military victory ... by... atrocities... the civilians

Long interesting discussion at

danieldrezner entry_id=2680

J Thomas at April 14, 2006 09:26 AM

WROTE
Now the US is fighting a non-conventional war, and learning how to do it the hard way.

We've known how to do it all along. We did it successfully in the philippines.

You get a military victory in this kind of thing by doing atrocities against the civilians until they unconditionally surrender.

You can't keep insurgents from killing civilians, and insurgents can't keep you from killing civilians.

You kill more of them and there's no hope in hell the insurgents can drive you away. The civilians will surrender and inform on the insurgents so you'll stop killing them.

They'll stay surrendered for a generation or so and by that time you'll have a lot of collaborators who'll keep the new insurgents away from anything important.

ANN Þ Says :

but the French could not do it in Algeria.
And the USA ....of ? course ? indeed ? could not, will not do it....

Maybe the Middle east is lost (Iran, Iraq, the entire sector of the Levant)