Roadside bombs

[gfreshsushi]

it's a little too late at night for me to accurately articulate my feelings on this subject, so i'll just say that threads like this would be a better read if the mods just went through and deleted the bullshit inflammatory or unnecessary posts like the one by mr. palestineone.

 

theo n cilone have more room to talk about this shit than most, seeing as how they are actually serving and see this shit or could or have, but i still disagree with people portraying the iraqis as cowardly. they are attacking the only way that actually has any track record of working. they can't expect to defeat the united states military, but they can make public opinion change with enough body bags.

[KaBar2]

The goal in war is to win

 

There's no such thing as "fair." War is the ultimate social darwinism--whoever is strongest either kills or dominates the weaker belligerant. BUT, as somebody famous once said (Churchill? Maybe.) "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog."

 

Civilized nations agree to sign the Geneva Convention and wage warfare according to a set of rules. Among other things, poison gas and "dum-dum" bullets (hollowpoints--like I have thousands of in my cache) are outlawed, along with saw-tooth bayonets, etc.

 

Aerial bombing is kosher, so is interlocking machine-gun positions, mines, a forest of barbed wire, tanks, massed artillery barrages that last for a week, etc. It was WWI. A very nasty war.

 

The Iraqis are not cowards for using roadside bombs. If they had MiG-21 attack bombers and Hind-D helicopters, and knew how to fly them, they would not need roadside bombs. But they are fighting a losing battle within a defeated country, and they do not even possess a reserve ammunition stock, much less a wing of MiG-21's.

 

They are violating the Geneva Convention rules though, not because they use roadside bombs, but because they DO NOT WEAR A DISTINCTIVE UNIFORM. Of course, the Iraqi Army had uniforms, but they threw them all away when we invaded. And now they are fighting, technically, as "irregular" or "partisan" guerrilla soldiers. This is a major violation of the Geneva Convention. Enemy soldiers in uniform in a declared war are accorded certain rights. One is the right to surrender without being summarily shot in a ditch. Another is protection from being criminally prosecuted, AS LONG AS THEY ABIDE BY THE GENEVA CONVENTION and do not commit war crimes.

 

Guerrilla partisans OUT OF UNIFORM, however, may be shot right where they stand, against the nearest wall. They are not honorable soldiers. Honorable soldiers wear a uniform and play by the rules. If they surrender, we allow them to do so. If they lay down their arms and follow the orders of their officers, they are taken to assembly camps, allowed to keep their uniforms, fed the same food our troops get, housed in barracks comprable to those our own soldiers get, are provided medical care, like we give our own soldiers, are allowed to write home, receive CARE packages, etc.

 

Of course, wearing a uniform would mean we could round them all up in about a week.

 

So. My position is to announce to the citizens of Iraq:

 

"The government of Saddam Hussein is defeated. The Army is disbanded. Any bona fide Iraqi soldier captured OUT OF UNIFORM bearing arms against the United States or Coalition Forces will be transported to Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for no less than twenty years. Anyone convicted of killing an American soldier or a Coalition soldier while OUT OF UNIFORM will receive fifty years imprisonment.

Soldiers who surrender honorably will be treated with dignity and honor. A five thousand dollar reward will be paid to every Iraqi soldier who surrenders IN UNIFORM WITH HIS RIFLE and who is in possession of his military I.D. card or dog tags.

In addition to this, any Iraqi officer above the rank of captain willing to surrender his UNIT with their weapons, uniforms and I.D. cards or dog tags will receive a fifty thousand dollar stipend. All surrendered Iraqi soldiers, and their families, will be eligible for basic food support, priority housing, and Government employment just as if they were demobilized from the Iraqi Army before the war, for a period of ten years.

 

Any partisan guerrilla fighter over the age of sixteen, whether Iraqi or foreign mercenary, OUT OF UNIFORM will be considered a brigand. No quarter will be offered to or accepted from brigands. No demobilization benefits will be extended to brigands. United States soldiers above the rank of captain are authorized to have captured brigands summarily hanged. (Not shot---Courts Martial and firing squads are for soldiers, not murderers. Murderers will be hanged without trial. According to the Geneva Convention, brigands may be executed.)

 

Brigands determined to be fifteen years old or younger will be transported to and incarcerated in Camp X-Ray. They will be reevaluated at age twenty-five to determine whether or not they are rehabilitated. Those who have learned English, completed school, and renounced terrorism and brigandage will be repatriated to their family in Iraq. Those who do not will be held indefinately."

 

Next, I would immediately start hiring Iraqi men as construction labor at a living Iraqi wage, and give preference to demobilized soldiers. Then start building decent housing, roads, sewage systems, schools and everything else you can think of as fast as humanly possible. Start by offering to re-build and refurbish every mosque damaged by the war. Anybody who lives peacefully gets employment, benefits, housing and dignity.

 

Anybody out of uniform who resists, and survives the capture, gets hanged, and buried in a mass grave. No headstone. No notification of next of kin. Nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada.

 

Put de-Baathified former Iraqi military officers and police officers in charge of hunting brigands. Pay them a small bonus for every one captured. Like with bail jumpers---the rules are completely suspended for brigands. It would be "open season" on anybody operating as a partisan guerrilla or a brigand, especially foreigners. No Miranda Rights, no "knock-before-you-enter," no warrant-for-their-arrest. Come in shooting, and bring the body in for the bounty, like coyotes.

 

Anybody arrested resisting in uniform would lose his right to vote for ten years and be ineligible for demobilization benefits.

 

I guess that about covers it. Bottom line: surrender honorably and be treated with dignity (hey, you guys lost---fair is fair) or continue to behave like a murderer and be treated like one.

 

And I would double the number of troops in Iraq at present, complete with tank support, air support, artillery support and every Combat Engineer we can muster.