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| Iraq | |
| Iraqis in Tal Afar cheer American soldiers | |
| 2005-12-19 | |
| In the low-slung concrete buildings of Tal Afar, a city built on dirty sand and mud, George W Bush sees the potential for military success in Iraq. In recent weeks it has been one case study the American president has consistently cited in order to buttress the rhetoric that the insurgency, and the killing, can be ended. Tal Afar was the site of the largest military operation of 2005, when 8,000 US and Iraqi troops reclaimed it from armed groups. It has since been used to test a new strategy of "clear, hold, build", in which areas would be purged of insurgents and then rejuvenated to win support from local people, before being handed over to the Iraqi security forces. It is also called "ink spot" strategy, whereby one area of control would spread to another - like an ink spot spreading on blotting paper - until the entire country was covered, in a model similar to that adopted by the British in Malaya. In Tal Afar, according to the president, military success had been followed by the restoration of law and order and the implementation of reconstruction projects to give "hope" to its citizens. Visiting the city, nestled near the Syrian border in the north-west of the country, there is no doubt that something has been achieved. Unlike in Fallujah, another Sunni Arab insurgent stronghold, the storming of which by US marines was the defining campaign of 2004, there is actually large-scale rebuilding in progress. While many of the citizens of Fallujah still eke out their existence in the ruins of their former homes, in Tal Afar the streets are full of building sites. New sewers have been dug and the fronts of shops, destroyed in the US assault, were replaced within weeks. Sunni police have been hired and 2,000 goats were even distributed to farmers. More remarkably, the approach of an American military convoy brings people out to wave and even clap, something not seen since the invasion of spring 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein. But the success in Tal Afar only highlights the problems of replicating it elsewhere. The strategy will require more troops, which is politically unacceptable right now in America, given growing public doubts about the war. Andrew Krepinevich, the academic who earlier this year outlined ink spot theory, said large numbers were needed to establish "safe zones".
But perhaps the key difference is that the American troops from the 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regiment, based in Tal Afar, are different from the majority found in Iraq. Their commander, Col H R McMaster, is a counter-insurgency specialist who wrote a book about the Vietnam War, in which he criticised the US military's failure to understand the enemy's culture. Before deployment, his men were given extensive Arabic classes and intensive lessons on Iraqi history, customs and religion. Proper efforts were made to woo local tribal sheiks with banquets in which goats were slaughtered and concerns listened to. "The enemy is really good at disinformation and propaganda. We have to win the battleground of perception," he said. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #8 A sobering thought: notwithstanding instances of political stability among Arab collectives, Islamofascists alway enter the picture. Ergo: do not project status quo antes. The so-called "Iraq inclusive democracy" is one big political pinata. |
| Posted by: CaziFarkus 2005-12-19 22:43 |
| #7 Whatever their new "stage" is, I'm glad they can label it and pass that knowledge to the next joe in the next town. I don't really care how new it is, as long as it's working and easy to understand. |
| Posted by: Thomoling Glaviting5368 2005-12-19 11:46 |
| #6 There are legitimately competing facets to reconstruction. The first is the "Santa Claus" approach, in which you dazzle the locals by improving their lives immensely. However, the downside to this is they become both dependent and beholden to you, which can have serious drawbacks. So the other side of the coin is that you want their local government to be strong and effective, to provide continual improvement to their lives. But the downside to that is it takes longer, and they are less competant and more prone to corruption. Therefore, every task to be accomplished has to be seen in the light of, "Can they do this themselves?", vs. "Can they do this in a timely manner?" Finally, every project that the US does has an "opportunity cost" (a term from economics), of both time and money. This means that every dime and every minute spent doing something here means that you cannot use them somewhere else. The plus side to that is gradualism. Every town that is self-sustaining, where the US can leave, is essentially "taken ground". This frees up more and more resources for the progressively fewer trouble spots. Eventually, you have more people than jobs to do, which means a phased withdrawl of the excess personnel, which is where we are right now. Ironically, this is obvious to those who know what is going on, and so there is a fight to claim credit for the phased withdrawl. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-12-19 09:32 |
| #5 We have the troops. They're Iraqi. 'nuff said. /by Snotle Snailing1773..hey nice name eh |
| Posted by: Snotle Snailing1773 2005-12-19 04:14 |
| #4 well said zf! I for one am tired of the "journalists". They aren't really journalists at all, but self-appointed preachers preaching doom, gloom and the evils of our western culture from a soap box. They are the holy, the righteous, the pure. They are becoming as obnoxious and cartoonish as the guy who stands on the street corner with a placard that says, "repent, the end is near" and screeches at everyone who walks by as being full of the devil and in need of repentance. Bleah. |
| Posted by: 2b 2005-12-19 04:13 |
| #3 But... Ray Nagin already said that we can fly an aircraft carrier around the world in 24 hours! |
| Posted by: Phil 2005-12-19 02:10 |
| #2 These moronic journalists keep on harping on a supposedly new strategy. This isn't a new strategy. It's just another stage of the old strategy. This stage was made possible by the previous stage, as well as concurrent operations in other parts of Iraq, where large enemy formations are destroyed, to eliminate their ability to attack in groups of several hundred terrorists at once. If this current stage, which involves the deployment of units of several dozen men had been tried earlier, American units would have suffered major casualties. Now that the enemy's ability to mount company-sized attacks has been degraded, it is now possible to do the kinds of penny-packet deployments necessary to do the hearts-and-minds thing. Even when building a house, you need to first establish the foundations before you put the walls up. Journalists assume that modern military technology means you can just press a button and get immediate results. The reality is that even putting up a building can take years, and it's not even shooting back at the builders - and a case in point is the World Trade Center, which remains a hole in the ground four years after September 11. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-12-19 02:07 |
| #1 whoo hoo march on, semper fis,and merry xmas to all mef rulz |
| Posted by: SCPatriot 2005-12-19 01:32 |