Jan 23, 2006
Tanks vs. Letters
In a recent post, I noted a situation described by John Robb on his blog, Global Guerillas: Insurgents have successfully shut down oil industry operations in southern Iraq by sending threatening letters to industry employees. For the cost of some stamps, insurgents caused serious economic disruption in Iraq -- and serious harm, therefore, to the U.S. military's security and stabilization operations, or SASO.
Here's a new example of the same dynamic. Doctors and other professionals are fleeing Iraq because of, yes, anonymous threatening letters. Iraqis who can't get basic medical care will quite reasonably regard their country as unstable, and blame the occupying power. With a few stamps, insurgents have again seriously challenged the legitimacy of the American occupation.
The Washington Post reports:"Iraq's top professionals -- doctors, lawyers, professors -- and businessmen have been targeted by shadowy political groups for kidnapping and ransom, as well as murder, some of them say. So many have fled the country that Iraq is in danger of losing the core of skilled people it needs most just as it is trying to build a newly independent society."
How would a military occupation go about fighting this sort of trend with airstrikes and armored columns? And what are the other military options? How on earth does an occupying army reverse the flight of cardiologists and pediatricians?
Another example of why I think the war is going very, very badly because of the application of tools that have sharply limited utility for the job at hand.
More posts coming soon in the"Shadows and Fog" series. I've been semi-busy, semi-depressed about being trapped in the desert with nothing to do, and otherwise distracted.
Here's a new example of the same dynamic. Doctors and other professionals are fleeing Iraq because of, yes, anonymous threatening letters. Iraqis who can't get basic medical care will quite reasonably regard their country as unstable, and blame the occupying power. With a few stamps, insurgents have again seriously challenged the legitimacy of the American occupation.
The Washington Post reports:"Iraq's top professionals -- doctors, lawyers, professors -- and businessmen have been targeted by shadowy political groups for kidnapping and ransom, as well as murder, some of them say. So many have fled the country that Iraq is in danger of losing the core of skilled people it needs most just as it is trying to build a newly independent society."
How would a military occupation go about fighting this sort of trend with airstrikes and armored columns? And what are the other military options? How on earth does an occupying army reverse the flight of cardiologists and pediatricians?
Another example of why I think the war is going very, very badly because of the application of tools that have sharply limited utility for the job at hand.
More posts coming soon in the"Shadows and Fog" series. I've been semi-busy, semi-depressed about being trapped in the desert with nothing to do, and otherwise distracted.