Word: chechnya
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...current war in Chechnya was meant to exorcise the ghosts of Russia's ignominious defeat there in 1996; instead, its threatening to reincarnate that disastrous campaign. The reason may be not so much that the Russians aren't fighting well, but that they're fighting the wrong...
...hard core of militant separatist guerrillas from within the wider Chechen population, and destroy it. Russia blames those militants for terrorist attacks in Russia and attempts to foment a separatist rebellion in neighboring Dagestan, as well as for the atmosphere of chaos and criminality that has prevailed in Chechnya over the past three years. But Moscow's methods in the field have been those of conventional warfare, bringing overwhelming force to bear in order to capture territory. And the art of guerrilla warfare is not to hold territory when faced with overwhelming odds, but instead to allow an enemy...
...from the Kremlin over how to conduct the campaign, will further sap the already diminished morale of the Russian forces. And Russia's economic woes continue to have an impact on the situation. Says Meier, "There are still stories appearing in the media every week of Russian officers in Chechnya selling weapons to the enemy...
...Domestic political support for the war effort is crucial to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's efforts to use Chechnya as a stepping-stone to the presidency in the March election. Right now, it's holding steady. "Polls reflect that Russians still strongly support the war despite rising concern over setbacks," says Meier...
...history of counterinsurgency warfare suggests that defeating the Chechen guerrilla forces requires a political strategy to win over the bulk of Chechnya's civilian population. Following Mao Zedong's analogy that guerrillas are fish and a sympathetic civilian population is the water in which they swim, the art of counterinsurgency is to poison the water by turning civilians against the guerrillas. And Russia had reason for optimism going into the campaign. "Many Chechens are opposed to the Islamic militants like Shamil Basayev and Khattab, who the Russians claim to be targeting," says Meier. "Even more may have been prepared...