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Recent
Stories
April
21, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
An Administration in Contempt
Edward
Said
Give Us Back Our Democracy
Gary
Leupp
Easter Thoughts on Liberation, Jesus
and Kanaka WaiWai
Roger
Witherspoon
Why Michigan Needs Affirmative Action
Uri Avnery
At Midnight, a Knock on the Door
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/19
April
19, 2003
Gary
Leupp
The Rape of History
Saul
Landau
Shop, Go to Church, Support Bush's
War, Wait for Armageddon
Michael
J. Fellows
Off With Their Heads: the Constitution According to Scalia
Pablo
Mukherjee
Roadmap to Resistance
Omar
Barghouti
Sharon's Bloody Beat
Anthony
Gancarski
Tony Blair: the Most Powerful Man in the World
Mickey
Z.
Animals: the Other Collateral Damage
Will
Potter
When Police Attack Journalists
William
MacDougall
America's In-Bedded Journalism
Neve
Gordon
Haunted by History
Adam
Engel
Wal-Mart and Peace
Dr.
Susan Block
Art Bombs: American Libertines for Peace
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Buono, Guthrie
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/19
Song of
the Weekend
Baghdad to Basra
April
18, 2003
Uri
Avnery
Operation "Syrian Freedom":
This One's Not About Oil
Jorge
Mariscal
"They Died Trying to Become
Students": the Future of Latinos in an Era of War and Occupation
Mickey
Z:
Coalition of the Unindicted: Only Losers Get Tried for War Crimes
Hussein
Ibish
Syria and the Road to World War IV
Reza Ladjevardian
Tarqeting Iran? Do It With TV, Not Cruise Missiles
Matania
Ben-Artzi
You Are Not Protecting My Son's Rights: a Letter to the President
of Israel's Supreme Court
Bruce Jackson
Jews Like Us
Joe
Allen
My Lai Revisited
Carl Estabrook
Support Our Euphemism
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/18
Website
of the Day
Meet the Victims of War
April
17, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Patriot Gore: the Fatal Flaws in
the Patriot Missile System
Joanne
Mariner
Looting Antiquity: the Legal Implications
for the Pentagon
Issam
Nashashibi
Zalmay Khalilzad: the Neocon's Bagman
to Baghdad
Wayne Madsen
Another Sign of the "End Times" for American Journalism
Robert
Fisk
The Army of Occupation
Boris
Kagarlitsky
Virtual Saddam Takes Aim
Biljana
Vankovska
A Personal View of Iraq: Where
is the Truth?
Dan Brook
Oil War: Fueling the Empire
Stanley
Heller
Bomb and Steal: This is What Privatization Looks Like
Tim Robbins
A Chill Wind is Blowing Through This Nation
Harold
A. Gould
Iraq After the War
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/17
April
16, 2003
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Jason
Leopold
Halliburton's Bloody History: They'll
Work for Anyone
Kurt
Nimmo
The Destruction of Iraq: Hey, It's
Good for Business
Stephen
Green
Dancing to Sharon's Beat: the Road
to Unilateral Pre-emption
Diane
Christian
The Devil in Bush's Details
Carol
Norris
Mourning Iraq
Anthony
Gancarski
They Call Themselves Economists?
Michael
Sells
Nero in Baghdad
Alexander
Cockburn
Contract with Iraq
Ninan Koshy
India's Devious Middle Path Through the Iraq War
Brenda
Norrell
Lakota Leader: World Must Resist
American Empire
Wallace
Gagne
End of History; More in a Moment
Stew
Albert
On the Road Again
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/16
April
15, 2003
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Robert
Jensen
Self-Determination in Iraq? Then the
US Must Leave
Dr.
Susan Block
The Rape of Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Aiming at Syria: Stop Them Before They Kill Again
Robert
Fisk
The Final Sacking of Baghdad
Col. Dan
Smith
Post-War Iraq: Asking the Right Questions
Ali
Abunimah and Hussein Ibish
A Cycle of Chaos and Confrontation: Misadventures of the NeoCons
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/15
April
14, 2003
Chris
Floyd
Bush's War Without End
Uri Avnery
Gunboat Democracy: This is Only the Beginning
Wayne
Madsen
Americans: The New Mongols of the Mideast?
Shahid
Alam
Iqra: Iraq is Free
Hani
Shukrallah
Day of the Chicken Hawks
Terry
Jones
The Iraq Gravy Train
John
Chuckman
The Iraq War's Trashiest Piece of Propaganda
Patrick
Cockburn
US has a Lot to Answer For: Violence,
Misery and Poverty in Iraq
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/14
April
12 / 13, 2003
Carol
Lipton
Wag the Kennel: the Kenneth Joseph
Story
Wayne
Madsen
Meet the New Butcher of Baghdad: Maj.
Gen. Buford Blount III
John
Brown
"They Got It Down": the Toppling
of the Saddam Statue
Kathy and
Bill Christison
Final Thoughts from Palestine
William
Blum
Our Vulnerable Warmongers' Rush to Justify Devastation
Wallace
Gagne
Let the Stealing Begin
Ann
Harrison
Rosenthal Update: Judge Delays Ruling in Medical Pot Mistrial
Case
Henry Miller
What is the Greatest Treason?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Render Unto Cesar
Zeljko
Cipris
Mocking Militarism: On Ishikawa Jun's Song of Mars
Ishikawa
Jun
The Song of Mars
Jamey Hecht
Chairman of the Sandwich Board
Adam
Engel
Hell of a Town: Mayor Bloomberg and
the News
Poets'
Basement
Chang Yang-Hao, Adam Engel and Hammond Guthrie
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/12
April
11, 2003
Omar
Barghouti
From Saddam to Uncle Sam
Ron
Jacobs
Greed is Rewarded
David
Vest
The Corporate War on Iraq
Paul
de Rooij
Propaganda Stinkers: Fresh Samples from the Field
Anthony
Gancarski
Foreign Aid: Embezzlement as Public Policy
Mas'ood
Cajee
Franklin Graham: Spiritual Carpetbagger
Michael
Neumann
Now What?
Michael
Berry
The Neo-Cons Have a Dream
Stew Albert
Oh Freedom
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/11
Website
of the Day
About Those Dancing Crowds
April
10, 2003
Zoltan
Grossman
The Perils of Occupation: the Easier
the Victory, the Harder the Peace
Uri
Avnery
The Night After
Wayne Madsen
The Telltale Signs of Empire
David Krieger
Before You Become Too Flushed with Victory, Think of Ali Ismaeel
Abbas
Jeremy
Brecher
What Can the World Do Now That Tanks Prowl Baghdad?
Robert
Jensen
The Unseen War
Geoffrey
Neale
Ashcroft's War on the Constitution:
A Patriot Attack on America
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Last Tango in Baghdad
Hammond
Guthrie
Rumors of War
Joseph
Heller
Nately's Old Man
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/10
Website
of the Day
The
Third Page
April
9, 2003
David
Lindorff
Secret Bechtel Docs Reveal: Yes,
the War Is About Oil
Doug
Lummis
Saving Private Lynch: Hollywood and
War
Susan
Davis
The New York Times and the Peace Movement
David Vest
Smoking Gun? You're Watching It
John
Chuckman
America's Sovereign Right to Do
as It Damn Well Pleases
Akiva
Eldar
Gary Bauer and AIPAC: an Unholy Alliance
with the Christian Right
Ray
Hanania
Suicide Bombers without the Suicide:
Racism, Hypocrisy and the War on Iraq
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/9
April
8, 2003
David
Lindorff
Killing the Messengers: It Doesn't
Matter If It's Deliberate or Accidental
Richard
Lichtman
Dr. Phil in the Trenches
John
Brown
Why Uncle Ben Hasn't Sold Uncle Sam:
a Former Foreign Service Staffer on Bush's Policy Failures
Ben
Terrall
Report from the Oakland Docks: "The
Cops Had No Reason to Open Up on Them"
Jason Leopold
FERC and Wall Street: Conversations
May Have Violated Federal Law
Anthony
Gancarski
Conyers Heeds the Call on Perle
Linda Heard
Journalists Die, the Networks Lie, Iraqis Ask "Why?"
Ahmad
Faruqui
Wallowing in Hypocrisy
Wallace
Gagne
Baghdad Babble
Harry
Browne
Report from the Protests at the Bush/Blair
Summit
Larry Kearney
I Understand There's a Boy in
a Baghdad Hospital
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/8
M. Shahid
Alam
The Israelization of America
April
7, 2003
Todd
Chretien
Wooden Bullets & Grenades: Oakland
Cops Attack Peace Protesters and Dock Workers
David
N. Gibbs
Spying, Secrecy and the University:
The CIA is Back on Campus
Harry Browne
War and Peace Summit a Royal Farce
Gideon
Levy
America is Not a Role Model
Diane
Christian
A Scene from an Obscene War
Jules
Rabin
Remembering Deir Yassin
James Davis
Oddsmaking in Dublin: Will Bush
Shake Gerry's Hand?
Robert
Fisk
The Twisted Language of War
Patrick
Cockburn
Slaughter on the Road to Dibagah
John
Mackay
War and Art
Seth Sandronsky
Wars and the Color Line
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/7
April
5, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
The Iraqi Humanitarian Relief is
in Shambles
Anne
Gwynne
A Drowning in Salem
Uri
Avnery
Roadmap to Nowhere
Chris
Floyd
Hell for Leather: Bombs, Bullets, Bibles and Bush
William
Cook
Would You Have Sent Your Son (or Daughter) Off to War If...
Gila
Svirsky
A Busy Day for Bulldozers
Mike Ferner
Back from Baghdad: What Next for the Peace Movement?
Joanne
Mariner
Civilian Deaths and Official Apologies
John Stanton
Bush Takes His Killing Orders
from the Lord
Romi
Mahajan
Learning to Count the Dead
Aluf Benn
After Iraq, US Vows to Deal with
Other Mideast Regimes
Mary
Ellen Peterson
Gay Marine Refuses to Fight
William
MacDougall
Country Music and the Crimes of Patriotism
Ron
Jacobs
War and Occupation
Bernie
Pattison
Aborigines and the Different God
Mark
Engler
Iraq War as Arms Expo
Adam Engel
Li'l Box of Love: a Novelini
Poets'
Basement
Tripp, Albert, Katz
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Flesh and Its Discontents: the Paintings of Lucian Freud
Norman
Madarasz
Canada and the War
April
4, 2003
Anthony
Gancarski
Colin Powell's Shame
John
Chuckman
Was Einstein Right About Israel?
David
Krieger
The Meaning of Victory
Tom
Gorman
The Mantra of the Troops: Support
or Treason?
Adam
Federman
The Absence of War
Vijay
Prashad
There Are No More Arguments
Tom
Stephens
The End of the Innocence
Mickey
Z.
Makes Me Sic (Sic): Copy Editing
Bush Speak
Pierre
Tristam
War Coverage: a Dishonest Reality
Show
Hammond
Guthrie
The Deadly Mihrab
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/04
April
3, 2003
Uri
Avnery
A Crooked Mirror: Presstitution and
the Theater of Operations
David
Vest
Can You Hear the Silence?
Anthony
Gancarski
Colin Powell Telemarketer
David
Lindorff
Takoma: the Dolphin Who Refused
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Roberts
War, Debts and Deficits
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Baroud
Now That Iraqis Are Being Killed Is Israel Any More Secure?
Jo Wilding
From Baghdad with Tears
Anton
Antonowicz
Cluster Bombs on Babylon
Alison
Weir
Israel, We Won't Forget Rachel Corrie
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Jackson
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Eliot Katz
War's First Week
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April 21,
2003
"The Regime is Gone"
Early Lessons
from Iraq
by Col. DAN SMITH
With the main fighting in Iraq ending and the
Ba'ath party hold on the levers of power broken, the U.S. and
UK can justly claim military success. Coalition casualties have
been low, and all coalition personnel known to have been held
by the Iraqis have been freed. For the second time in 18 months,
governments accused of harboring and supporting terrorists have
been deposed. Iraqis, like their Afghan brethren last year, have
been released from an oppressive and brutal regime.
But unlike Afghanistan, where U.S. forces
were relatively few and powerful warlords exercised control of
and imposed order on different regions outside the capital, Iraqi
security services were so pervasive that virtually no real alternate
power centers ever developed inside the country. Exiled Iraqis
tried to create viable opposition to Saddam's rule, but even
with Pentagon and State Department support (often for different
factions), they made little progress. A number of the exiles
returned under U.S. auspices, but they have had little impact
to date.
Meanwhile, television commentaries and
images of celebrating Iraqis quickly became images of utter chaos--unrestrained
looting and even wanton destruction of property. If it could
be moved, it was taken; if it couldn't, it was smashed or burned.
Whether in Basra or Baghdad, Kirkuk or Mosul, the coalition forces
were simply too few to even seriously attempt regaining control
of the cities without the cooperation of large segments of the
population, which they did not have. The following two examples
illustrate the problem:
In Basra, British forces (who are in
division strength) designated a local Sunni tribal sheik and
former brigadier general in Saddam's army to help select and
lead an interim council for the city, which suffered from massive
looting. But as soon as the sheik's identity became known, a
powerful rival tribe nearly rioted while Shi'ites held a large
protest march.
In Baghdad, some facilities, such as
the UN compound and the Ministry of Petroleum, were secured by
American troops, while others, notably the Museum of Antiquities
with all its irreplaceable artifacts, were left exposed. Some
of the more egregious looters--those who invaded hospitals and
schools--were stopped and "arrested." But additional
large numbers of military police, light infantry forces, or paramilitaries
(carabiniere or gendarmes) are needed to free regular forces
to mop up organized resistance.
There is another reason for bringing
in new units with peacekeeping or police training. Military units
that have been fighting pitched battles are still psychologically
oriented to kill people and destroy things. This is not the mindset
conducive to policing or to reestablishing public order. The
distinctions between missions and operational environment are
such that U.S. (and other) military units assigned to peacekeeping
duty in Bosnia and Kosovo receive special training in "peace
operations" before they are deployed--and they are coming
from non-combat environments. Even Marines, trained for the "three
block war" (theoretically enabling a unit to switch from
humanitarian assistance in one spot to more active peacekeeping
in another and/or to engaging in deadly combat in a third), would
expect that one of these three options was their initial primary
mission. And this expectation would set their psychological outlook
and inform their actions vis-a-vis the civilian population.
Obviously, it is still early days. Military
forces are still dealing with remnants of Saddam's fedayeen around
Tikrit and they continue to engage small groups resisting the
coalition around other towns (i.e., near Mansour). Even so, there
are some lessons that can already be reaffirmed or drawn.
No matter how remote the possibility,
never give up hope that prisoners taken by the enemy will be
recovered alive. A corollary is to plan and conduct operations
that minimize civilian death and destruction even if this means
forgoing some military-related mobile targets placed in civilian
areas in contravention of international law. Minimizing civilian
deaths might be the difference between recovering prisoners alive
or dead. It also can go far toward minimizing suspicions about
the true motives for war. Be prepared for rapid transitions in
missions. When one country (or coalition of countries) occupies
another, the occupying power(s) does not have the luxury of discretely
segmenting its activities into, for example, full-scale war,
mopping-up remaining opposition, reestablishing order and basic
services, occupation duty, humanitarian relief, and re-integration
into the world community. Just as there is in the military a
spectrum of actions from high- to low-intensity warfare that
invariably overlaps, so too is there a spectrum of post-combat
military and civilian activities that must be undertaken. It
is just as vital to build and then execute a highly flexible,
well-resourced plan to win the post-war battle of public expectations
as it is to devise and execute a highly flexible military campaign
plan. In reconstituting a civil administration, particularly
in a country in which the previous civil administration was highly
repressive and of long duration, those among the population who
work with the occupying power as interim leaders must command
the respect and support of significant segments of the public.
It is particularly important for the occupying power to understand
the make-up and status of any surviving, organized elements of
civil society, for the leaders of these groups might command
wide respect--or they might be prone to the same authoritarianism
as the just-deposed regime. Above all, biases for or against
types of organizations (e.g., religion) participating in or excluded
from governance in the occupying country's political system should
not prejudice the selections made for governance in the occupied
country. Whenever possible, the emerging governmental forms should
be connected to indigenous traditions and previous national political
experiences. Do not plan on spontaneous public acclaim and a
popular uprising in support of an invading power. As oppressive
as a regime might be, in one sense it is tolerable if it is indigenous.
To impose a regime of outsiders, whether from the occupying country
or exiles from the occupied country, more often than not breeds
resentment and rejection of significant reforms. Anticipate civil
unrest and provide sufficient resources--civil affairs units
and military police--to control significant facilities of the
previous regime. This was not done, even though it was clear
early in the campaign that large-scale civil disorder would occur
as the larger towns were captured and Ba'ath party rule collapsed.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, interviewed April 13, rejected
the phrasing that the U.S. "allowed" looting, defiantly
declaring "that's what happens when you go from a dictatorship
with repressed order, police state to something that is going
to be different. There's a transition period, and no one is control....
We don't allow bad things to happen. Bad things do happen in
life, and people do loot."
Another option is to create and finance
a large standing cadre of armed international police trained
for early entry into a failed or defeated state. The main responsibility
of this force would be the rapid restoration of civil law and
order--thereby obviating any inclination by military commanders
to impose martial law. A companion activity would screen for
suitability in the new system policemen from the deposed regime
who were not involved in human rights abuses. Once civil order
is restored, additional screening, recruiting, and training (or
re-training) of police candidates, and monitoring their performance
against international policing standards, could proceed. A prototype
for this option is the European Union's (plus Russia, Canada,
and Turkey) 512 person Bosnia-Herzegovina police training and
monitoring force that assumed these duties in January 2003 from
the UN. Whether or not the UN sanctions a military action, it
must take the lead in developing with relevant nongovernmental
humanitarian aid agencies plans for both stockpiling and the
"rolling" distribution of immediate humanitarian relief
supplies (water, food, essential medical supplies) in the wake
of military operations. In Operation Iraqi Freedom, civilian
populations lost electricity, fresh water, sanitation, and access
to food subsidies for days, with the lack of clean water being
the most critical. Reciprocal planning by and cooperation from
the occupying power will be required to minimize disease and
malnutrition and to ensure that minimal substitute services are
available on a predictable basis.
Organizations that might have opposed
war must not adopt the position that by participating in planning
for post-conflict relief efforts or for new institutions of governance,
they are somehow legitimizing the war or compromising their position.
What is paramount both during and after a war is the health and
well-being of the civilian population. But for the UN and nongovernmental
agencies to be most effective, the warring government(s) must
share information and permit access to the conflict area as soon
as possible. In short, the combatants must respect the independence
and neutrality of these humanitarian organizations.
If people remain the focus, one other
vital service that the UN and nongovernmental organizations can
provide is to constantly remind the warring parties of their
obligations to minimize the harm inflicted on noncombatants.
If minimizing harm seems too much of a restraint, then the motives
and justification for the war must be questioned--and the answers
might suggest that war was not the answer.
Dan Smith
is a military affairs analyst for Foreign
Policy in Focus and a retired U.S. army colonel and senior
fellow on Military Affairs at the Friends
Committee on National Legislation. He can be reached at:
dan@fcnl.org.
Yesterday's
Features
Uri
Avnery
Operation "Syrian Freedom":
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Jorge
Mariscal
"They Died Trying to Become
Students": the Future of Latinos in an Era of War and Occupation
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