Thanks to Josh Marshall, I checked out this must read article in the New York Times today. From the article,
Tough New Tactics by U.S. Tighten Grip on Iraq Towns
By DEXTER FILKINS
Published: December 7, 2003
BU
HISHMA, Iraq, Dec. 6 — As the guerrilla war against Iraqi insurgents
intensifies, American soldiers have begun wrapping entire villages in
barbed wire.
In selective cases, American soldiers are demolishing buildings thought
to be used by Iraqi attackers. They have begun imprisoning the
relatives of suspected guerrillas, in hopes of pressing the insurgents
to turn themselves in.
The Americans embarked on their get-tough strategy in early November,
goaded by what proved to be the deadliest month yet for American forces
in Iraq, with 81 soldiers killed by hostile fire. The response they
chose is beginning to echo the Israeli counterinsurgency campaign in
the occupied territories.
So far, the new approach appears to be succeeding in diminishing the
threat to American soldiers. But it appears to be coming at the cost of
alienating many of the people the Americans are trying to win over. Abu
Hishma is quiet now, but it is angry, too.
In Abu Hishma, encased in a razor-wire fence after repeated attacks on
American troops, Iraqi civilians line up to go in and out, filing
through an American-guarded checkpoint, each carrying an identification
card printed in English only.
“If you have one of these cards, you can come and go,” coaxed Lt. Col.
Nathan Sassaman, the battalion commander whose men oversee the village,
about 50 miles north of Baghdad. “If you don’t have one of these cards,
you can’t.”
The Iraqis nodded and edged their cars through the line. Over to one side, an Iraqi man named Tariq muttered in anger.
“I see no difference between us and the Palestinians,” he said. “We didn’t expect anything like this after Saddam fell.”
