May 14, 2005

DEAD-END KIDS:

The Mystery of the Insurgency (JAMES BENNET, 5/15/05, NY Times)

American forces in Iraq have often been accused of being slow to apply hard lessons from Vietnam and elsewhere about how to fight an insurgency. Yet, it seems from the outside, no one has shrugged off the lessons of history more decisively than the insurgents themselves.

The insurgents in Iraq are showing little interest in winning hearts and minds among the majority of Iraqis, in building international legitimacy, or in articulating a governing program or even a unified ideology or cause beyond expelling the Americans. They have put forward no single charismatic leader, developed no alternative government or political wing, displayed no intention of amassing territory to govern now.

Rather than employing the classic rebel tactic of provoking the foreign forces to use clumsy and excessive force and kill civilians, they are cutting out the middleman and killing civilians indiscriminately themselves, in addition to more predictable targets like officials of the new government. Bombings have escalated in the last two weeks, and on Thursday a bomb went off in heavy traffic in Baghdad, killing 21 people.

This surge in the killing of civilians reflects how mysterious the long-term strategy remains...


What strategy could they possibly have? Their cause, Islamicism, is unpopular and unworkable and if they were ever to try and take power anywhere they'd be easy pickings for the U.S. military. All they can do is kill until they're killed or tired of being killed.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 14, 2005 3:06 PM
Comments

And only half of them, give or take, are Islamists. The others are dissappointed Baathists. It's hard to know which half is more hated.

Posted by: David Cohen at May 14, 2005 3:32 PM

they're nihlists, donnie

Posted by: cjm at May 14, 2005 5:25 PM

The inherent divisions in Iraq work against them too. There is precious little to unite Sunnis and Shia. The Ba'athist pan-Arab nonsense is not a vote winner in Kurdistan. They have no unifying message precisely because there is no unifying thread in Iraq. The message the US sends is that you, the voter, can determine your own destiny and you are not strong enough to do so without respecting the rights of others different from you to seek theirs. That is a much more powerful message than anything any of the essentially sectarian terrorists can offer.

Posted by: bart at May 14, 2005 6:12 PM

there is an article about, comparing the terrorists in iraq with the aztecs -- they like killing and do it as an ends not a means.

Posted by: cjm at May 15, 2005 9:48 AM
« WHAT BECOMES OF THE LEFTIST PROJECT IF ALUMNI HAVE A SAY...: | Main | UNIONS DON'T EXIST FOR THE WORKERS BUT FOR THE LEADERSHIP: »