Some things just ain't fair

Longer version of the response to Jimbo's post at blackfive.

I really hope we are executing the "insurgents" after we bleed them dry of information, because it looks like someone is engaging in a propaganda offensive. And I don't want a bunch of inside agents as resources people can use and co-opt.

I do at least hope the High Command fixed the "catch and release" problem...

The best way to make sure the terroists stop using children and women as human shields is to use more firepower upon anyone using them as shields. Being held hostage sucks, allowing someone to use you as a human shield perhaps sucks more.

If the terroists and the human shields know that they will draw more fire if they are there, then perhaps they might have a decentive not to be there in the first place or at least not allow terroists to use them as human shields. It seems to me, the US High Command is using a lot of incentives and not enough decentives in this fight. But maybe that is why Iraqis who beat people up are more effective. They don't have a problem using decentives for bad behavior in a way that criminals would understand.

Who wins and who losses is a matter of perception. The Japanese didn't think they were losing, so they were prepared to force you to kill all of them. The Germans didn't think they lost WWI, so they started WWII. Because of the shortness of OIF 1 and the lack of resistance that was crushed (which compared to let's say GUlf War 1), simply meant that the insurgents didn't believe that they had lost. So they fight, and they kill, and it takes longer to fight an unconventional war than a conventional one.

I always feel amusement and contempt for those that said "Well, we're going to make a Short and Victorious War, and prevent casualties by taking Baghdad lightning fast through shock and awe". Well, congratulations on a low casualty count, heir general.

What Jordan recommends is important. However, Over There attempted to do that, attempted to show the insurgency as the backstabbing dudes that they were, but the milbloggers gave up on that series after one episode.

Retreat from the propaganda war, and the enemy will always win, because they would love to take back the battlespace of men's minds because others refuse to committ the support for positive propaganda.

Over There had as one of their first 5 episodes, of the media reporting that a black soldier had shot and executed a woman in a village after a firefight. The reporter said that the editors screwed him by cutting the footage to show an accident as a purposeful execution. We also saw that the insurgents had cameras and were waiting to film the "atrocity". In the end, we see the reporter being kidnapped when he contacts the terroists and his driver is executed, and in the end the reporter has his head chopped off by terroists before the troops bust in the doors.

The MilBloggers and military conscious people didn't like it after watching one episode of course, so Over There's effect was perhaps minimal. There was your chance to influence public opinion about terroist atrocities. Those chances don't come every day.

Nobody wins a war on the defensive. Waiting around for the media to come up with one atrocity after another, is perhaps not wise.

SPC Torgersen

I think a better and more realistic scenario is the up scale of what Eric Flint wrote about. Let's replace the entire continent of America with a Sm Stirling's version of the Draka, transpositioning time and space that is.

If we shut off all our borders and become Fortress America, we would suffer as much as the rest of the world, and if you want to see how the rest of the world suffers without us, you should replace AMerica with the Draka. That would be more scientifically sound and just.

Let's see how the rest of the world reacts to a superpower that has America's honor and duty, the ruthlessness of Russians, the ideology of the Nazis, and the technology to make super humans a reality. It ain't going to be pretty. I do recommend to people who is frustrated that America is in this situation, to read SM Stirling's Draka series, of 5 books. It does show why it is a fluke of providence that such a compassionate nation as America got the superpower status, and not someone else. And in the end, it shows you that while things are bad here, things would be worse if America wasn't America. Or if the world superpower wasn't America.

It is frustrating to see everyone trying to swarm the US, as we try and save children from drowning. Because even the strongest men, can be taken down from behind with enough numbers against him.