Juan Cole on how our allies , the British, are worrying that the US military tactics are alienatiing civilian populations.
Imagine that? Nothing changes. And we keep repeating the same insane, hubris-motivated, blind mistakes. And aside from stupid policy and the utter inadequacy of this in the long-run, it also happens to be wrong. And people somehow let themselves become convinced that governments don’t do this; that people in power don’t do this, and that they won’t keep doing it OVER and OVER and OVER. It’s the way of empire, and has been for millenia. That’s what makes the way of Christ truly revolutionary. It has nothig to do with the values that drive all of this.
The British officer corps is continuing in its efforts to convince the US military that its current rules of engagement are over-kill and result in the loss of many civlian lives (thus driving Iraqis to join or support the guerrillas). The British commanders feel that they learned lessons from Northern Ireland relevant to the US in Iraq. Sean Rayment quotes a British officer, ‘ “I explained that their tactics were alienating the civil population and could lengthen the insurgency by a decade. Unfortunately, when we ex-plained our rules of engagement which are based around the principle of minimum force, the US troops just laughed.” ‘ The British are concerned that the US will eventually so alienate Iraqis as to endanger British troops, as well.