“There’ll Be More
Fallujahs to Test U.S. Resolve” Response
Although the
current conflict in Iraq
may have some similarities with the U.S.
experience in Somalia,
one which we cannot afford is that of allowing the actions of a local
neighborhood thug to have a governing or directing influence over
strategy. Unfortunately, the
similarities are growing more familiar as our use of the military to conduct a
manhunt for an individual criminal gathers steam.
The focus of the
military efforts in Iraq
should be on the objectives of defense, containment, pacification, and
indigenous force training and support.
Defensive efforts should focus on ensuring the security of critical
centers and infrastructure against organized efforts of paramilitia. Containment and limited offensive efforts
should focus on limiting the freedom of movement and action of identified
concentrations of these same forces and, when resistance is met, their
destruction. Pacification efforts should
focus on weapons confiscation and control, humanitarian assistance, and
physical infrastructure development. All
of this should be conducted concurrently with an intense and sustained effort
of training and support to indigenous forces.
Leveraging off of the stability created by such military actions,
fledgling indigenous military, police, judicial, and political forces will be
able to develop their required presence, legitimacy and effectiveness. When the time is ripe through these efforts,
those who have committed crimes will be brought to justice. Barring this route, the military stands to
further inflame the passions of the population and swell the ranks of those
already hostile to their presence.
Worse, they will become involved in a game to which the conventional
rules of war are inadequate, tempting a breach of those rules in order to
achieve effectiveness in a mission for which they are an inappropriate
means. Leave man hunts to the law. Leave justice to the courts. Leave legitimacy to politics. Where these structures do not exist they must
be created rather than the military assuming their roles. This is a long process, and we should not
fool ourselves into thinking that it will be accomplished by June, or any other
arbitrary timetable. Whether it was
right or wrong to attack Iraq
is now immaterial. The country must be
stabilized and we, collectively as part of an international community, must be
successful in ensuring that occurs. A
realistic view as to the costs required to accomplish this, with continued and
increased international commitment to share these costs regardless of past
disagreements, is required. Lastly,
patient, wise and appropriate use of military force, always with a view to long
term consequences rather than short term expediency and visceral reactions, is
required.
H. R. Gielow
LtCol
USMC (ret)