Why We Cannot Win - by a soldier in Iraq

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig5/lorentz1.html

<snip>

Here are the specific reasons why we cannot win in Iraq.

First, we refuse to deal in reality. We are in a guerilla war, but because of politics, we are not allowed to declare it a guerilla war and must label the increasingly effective guerilla forces arrayed against us as "terrorists, criminals and dead-enders."

This implies that there is a zero sum game at work, i.e. we can simply kill X number of the enemy and then the fight is over, mission accomplished, everybody wins. Unfortunately, this is not the case. We have few tools at our disposal and those are proving to be wholly ineffective at fighting the guerillas.

The idea behind fighting a guerilla army is not to destroy its every man (an impossibility since he hides himself by day amongst the populace). Rather the idea in guerilla warfare is to erode or destroy his base of support.

So long as there is support for the guerilla, for every one you kill two more rise up to take his place. More importantly, when your tools for killing him are precision guided munitions, raids and other acts that create casualties among the innocent populace, you raise the support for the guerillas and undermine the support for yourself. (A 500-pound precision bomb has a casualty-producing radius of 400 meters minimum; do the math.)

Roadmap for the Prosecution by Karen Kwiatkowski

The military chain of command is considering charging Al with violation of Article 134 for making a statement with the intent to promote disloyalty or disaffection toward the U.S. by any member of the Armed forces.

If the charge is promoting disloyalty and disaffection toward the United States, it needs to be applied just a wee bit higher than good old Sergeant Lorentz. Tragically, we can’t find many neoconservative academics that are subject to the UCMJ. However, doesn’t it apply to Secretary Rumsfeld and his Deputy Paul Wolfowitz? And isn’t their boss George somewhere in the chain of command? Yeah, I know, not for Abu Ghraib torture sessions, but somewhere?

The military chain of command is also considering charging Al with violation of 1344.10, the conduct of partisan political activity, and violation of Standards of Conduct for unauthorized use of Government assets to create and email stories.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski94.html

[faithnotgreed]

1. yeah. this is the guy who now has charges against him for this letter

can face up to 20 yrs if convicted, from what ive read. being charged with insubordination

[mediaman007]

2. I read this as a prediction here at DU in the winter of 2003.

I'm sad for the soldier, but the blame goes right to the top. Bush* was so quick to dismiss the protesters and others with an opposite viewpoint.

If Bush* is re-elected, it may prove that there is no god.

[Maat]

3. I'm afraid you're right...

i will doubt the compassion of the Great Spirit for sure.

[ochazuke]

4. You're saying that his first term didn't do that for you?

His reselection would prove something worse.