Word: guerrillas
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Courageous it certainly was, and a morale boost for G.I.s too. But not even a presidential visit can change the reality on the ground. In Iraq the U.S. and its coalition allies are trying to pacify and democratize a nation of 25 million people while fighting a guerrilla war against determined and increasingly effective insurgents. The morning after Air Force One left Baghdad, a U.S. soldier was killed in a mortar attack in Mosul. By the weekend, 79 Americans had been killed since Oct. 31, making November the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Iraq since the war began...
That is the enemy's entire war objective: to inflict pain. And that is why it would be a strategic error to amplify and broadcast that pain by making great public shows of sorrow presided over by the President himself. In the midst of an ongoing war, a guerrilla war, a war that will be won and lost as a contest of wills, the Commander in Chief--despite what he feels in his heart--must not permit himself to show that he bleeds. He is required to show, yes, a certain callousness. He must appear that way to the insurgents...
...Insurgent And The Soldier," Simon Robinson noted the similarities between "Ahmed," an Iraqi guerrilla, and U.S. Staff Sergeant Richard Bear [Nov. 17]. But it would be misleading to believe the two have equally valid goals and beliefs. That would be like equating the American liberators of concentration camps with the Nazi murderers who created them. Ahmed was a commando in the Fedayeen Saddam militia before the war. There can be no true similarity between a supporter of Saddam Hussein's and a soldier in the U.S. Army. Maybe Robinson should put down his pen or laptop, stop hiding behind...
...Warriors In "The Insurgent and the Soldier," Simon Robinson noted the similarities between "Ahmed," an Iraqi guerrilla, and U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Richard Bear [Nov. 17]. But it would be misleading to believe the two have equally valid goals and beliefs. That would be like equating the American liberators of concentration camps with the Nazi murderers who created them. Ahmed was a commando in the Fedayeen Saddam militia before the war. There can be no true similarity between a supporter of Saddam Hussein and a soldier in the U.S. Army. Maybe Robinson should put down his pen, stop hiding behind...
Even that goal will be at risk if the security situation does not improve. In a guerrilla war, the sort of heavy-duty offensive launched last week can quickly backfire. "We risk looking really stupid if we say that we're going to get really tough but we can't, and if those measures only push those Iraqis sitting on the fence over to the other side," says former Marine Lieut. Colonel Dale Davis, who served in the Middle East and North Africa. "You don't win hearts and minds by blowing up somebody's house...