I Got Dem Counterinsurgency Blues Again: Or How Iraq Became Vietnam
Counterinsurgency = Political Action + Civic Action + Counter-guerrilla Operations — BERNARD FALL
The great war correspondent Bernard Fall understood Vietnam better than the French, whom he predicted would fail in their war against Ho Chi Minh’s national liberation movement, as well as the Americans, whom he also predicted would fail although they went about doing so a great deal more creatively.
Fall, who reported from Vietnam from 1953 until he stepped on a landmine in 1967, took no pleasure in being right. He supported both the French and American causes, but he was harshly critical of the U.S.’s failure to learn from France’s mistakes, especially its inability to understand the value of counterinsurgency warfare instead of relying on the 1960s version of Shock and Awe.
As Fall’s terse equation above this article indicates, counterinsurgency warfare is in essence a multi-pronged effort against insurgent forces — guerrillas, if you will — the goal of which is to beat them at their own game. Robert the Bruce, Mao Zedong, Josef Broz Tito and Ho, among other legendary figures in the history of warfare, conquered Scotland, China, Yugoslavia and Vietnam, respectively, because they were able to run circles around their foes although they were substantially larger and better equipped.
So it has been with the Sunni insurgency in Iraq.
Although the Bush administration would like you to believe otherwise, those guerrillas have taken far more American lives than highly publicized Al Qaeda bombings, and attacks are at their highest level in four years despite claims that the surge is succeeding.
Bernard Fall would have been saddened but not surprised that the politicians and generals planning the war made a conscious decision to avoid confronting the Ghost of Vietnam Past.
The rank dereliction of Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Franks — that is, their fundamental inability to understand the battlefield and what had to happen after the U.S. secured an inevitable victory by conventional means — becomes more astonishing with every passing year. That dereliction is directly responsible for the catastrophic mess that is Iraq today.
The ghost haunted the first three years-plus of the war until two savvy generals — General David Petraeus and Lieutenant General Raymond Odierno — arrived on the scene in the umpteenth change of command ordered by a White House that was finally beginning to understand that bluster was no substitute for results.
Petraeus, who runs the whole show in Iraq, has been a tireless advocate of ditching conventional warfare (or “babysitting a civil war,” to use Barack Obama’s stinging putdown) in favor of counterinsurgency. Not coincidentally, Petraeus is the man behind the Army’s updated manual on same, while it has been up to Odierno, who is in charge of day-to-day operations, to make sure that “all oars are pulling in the same direction,” to use a counterinsurgency cliché.
So now that the U.S. command has appeared to have learned from a fundamental mistake, can this new strategy — the key component of the surge — succeed?
The answer is complex but ultimately disheartening because Iraq has morphed into another Vietnam insofar as the conduct of the war itself is concerned, and that is not going to be wished away.
Please click here to read more at Kiko’s House.
opinions powered by SendLove.to
20 Responses to “I Got Dem Counterinsurgency Blues Again: Or How Iraq Became Vietnam”
[...] Clark Link to Article dick cheney I Got Dem Counterinsurgency Blues Again, Mama: Or How Iraq Became [...]
[...] Clark Link to Article barack obama I Got Dem Counterinsurgency Blues Again: Or How Iraq Became Vietnam [...]
[...] Court Link to Article white house I Got Dem Counterinsurgency Blues Again: Or How Iraq Became Vietnam [...]
[...] Clark Link to Article dick cheney I Got Dem Counterinsurgency Blues Again: Or How Iraq Became Vietnam [...]
Shaun – I am going to go out on a limb with a theory I’ve held since the Vietnam war. I recall the absolute disdain most soldiers and American citizens held the Vietnamese. “Gooks” was about the nicest thing said about Vietnamese, south or north.
Our disdain for other peoples makes true counter-insurgency operations difficult to impossible. It is impossible to hide this disdain and win the “hearts and minds”. This disdain for other peoples and our superiority complex is true today in Iraq. All you have to do is listen to many of the interviews of soldiers in Iraq today. We don’t like Iraqis and we don’t trust them.
From the way we bust down doors, to dropping shock and awe from the sky, to the way we round up military age suspects, to the way the military disdains iraqi lives (we don’t do body counts of civilians and if we do reluctantly admit a mistake with a civilian, it’s worth $2500).
Both in Vietnam and Iraq we have tried to do counter insurgency as a sub set of the war. In other words at various times and various places we do counter insurgency and in others all out war. In Iraq as an example, we sometimes drop bombs or fire artillery into the middle of a city we OCCUPY. We just did it in East Baghdad destroying 5 houses and families. That is NOT counter insurgency. We have do do either counter insurgency or all out was – not both.
This brings me back to a pet peeve of mine – American exceptionalism. As a general attitude we believe we are superior to all other human beings on this planet. As long as we continue with this belief we will NEVER do counter insurgency effectively – because deep in our hearts we don’t believe in it.
You know, I really get tired or hearing this. Almost all people (and peoples) believe they are exceptional in some or most ways. Rather than an American condition, exceptionalism is a human condition. As someone who has traveled extensively in Europe and Asia, I can tell you that Arabs, Chines, Koreans and Japanese all believe they are superior and have no problems telling me that directly.
JDL I agree with most of your comment, except that the US typically has contempt for our advisories in war. I think the Japs and Germans had names similar to “gook”. Even American tourists have a similar problem. McMaster is an exception to the rule. What can one expect of 19 year olds whose first visit to a foreign country is courtesy of the US military. The US elites send in Western foods(pork) and culture to set up an oasis in the “Emerald Zone”. Even foreigners are guilty of excepptionalism or arrogance. While staying in Germany(Heilbron) I tried a local restaurant which served wild game and local fare, my German coworkers suggested a more “American fare”.
Entropy – When in Korea did you eat kimchee or run to McDonalds for a BigMac?
I’d say you should go even further, and point out how even many of the supposed critics of “American exceptionalism” embrace the concept when it is useful. For example, look at the reaction every time someone calls on them to extend the same standards of judgment that they use to condemn Gitmo to Iran or to al-Qaeda. Every single time I have made that demand, I’ve received the same response: “Well, we hold the United States to a higher standard than those people.”
And that’s fine, but let’s call it what it is — American exceptionalism.
It’s even present in some of the condemnations above. For example, when someone condemns the United States for only offering $2500 of compensation to families of civilians killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, they overlook the fact that they never condemn other actors, almost all of whom offer ZERO compensation for the people that they kill. (They also overlook that $2500 is a huge fortune in Afghanistan or Iraq, but that is neither here nor there.)
Entropy – As part of my International Operations responsibilities I lived for one to two years in Japan, South Korea, Australia, Taiwan, India, Spain, Belgium, Israel, Argentina, Brazil, Italy and England. I too have traveled the globe extensively looking for business oportunities. I don’t want to get into a my “dick” is bigger than yours arguement.
Nonetheless, it is my contention that while other countries have some sense of exceptionalism, it is no where near what I find in America. For example, while Japan is not terribly fond of foreigners(gaijins)
their sense of superiority is rather subdued and has been since WWII. Maybe Lynx can comment on the Spainish, but I certainly did not find them thinking of themselves as exceptional. The same was true of South Americans and the South Koreans. Italians are proud of certain things in their culture but one thing they all consider something of a joke is Italy and their government. The closest I found to a sense of entitlement and exceptionalism was in Israel, and they indeed might beat even the US in that regard.
Entropy, I lived with these people and they were my friends and co-workers. We got drunk together and let our “hair” down. Pride yes, all peoples and countries have pride in some aspects of their culture. But belief that they are exceptional is a bridge too far in my experience.
Jason – The last figure I saw was the average Iraqi wage was $200/month so $2500 is roughly a year’s income to offset a lifetime of earnings. But more importantly, holding the US to high standards does not mean we are exceptional. We have a Constitution and Laws to uphold. Because our standards are higher than Iran or AlQaeda is NOT a judgement of our exceptionalism. A better question to ask is our standards higher than the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, France, Italy, and the rest of the developed world.
Just because the Kansas City Royals can beat my Grandson’s Little League Team does NOT make the Royals an exceptional baseball team.
Jason – Now you are cherry picking “American exceptionalism†. Our exceptionalism is to be lauded when we go into Pakistan and Thailand after natural disasters with aid without attachments. These actions make friends of people who only perceive us as enemy based al-Qaeda propaganda. Building hospitals and schools in Iraq is exceptional.
When Gitmo and rendition uses the worst abuses of USSR and Iranian prisons, it wasn’t the USSR or Iran approving these policies. It was John Woo, Cheney and W. Pushing an oil law on sovereign Iraq that benefits Western corporations isn’t exceptionalism, it smells of colonialism.
I ate some Kimchee, but never Mickey D’s in my recollection, though it has been about 10 years since I was last in Korea. The interesting thing about the Koreans is how friendly they are and eager to practice their english with me. I made many fast friends there. Virtually all them, however, loved to point out how Korean culture was superior to America’s and that our was only a couple of hundred years old while Korea’s was thousands. I saw similar sentiments in many other Asian countries.
I would agree with Jledell, though, that how exceptionalism is expressed is culturally dependent. I might even agree that Americans, with our more open culture and expressive society, are somewhat more bellicose in our exceptionalist tendencies, particularly compared to some, like the Japanese. However, it’s one thing to argue that but quite another to claim, as some have, that virtually everything America does is a result of exceptionalism while the rest of the world is not. Japanese exceptionalism may be more subdued, but that does not mean it is a less powerful force than American exceptionalism.
Europe is a strange animal in this regard. I think Europeans are some of the least exceptionalist as many are still living with the specter of their crimes in the 20th century. Asians, middle-easterners (of most stripes) do not have such inhibitions.
Both Rudi and Entropy brought this discussion down to a more reality-based level. There seems to be a race on to usurp certain words, labels. and phrases to represent only very narrow ideas, in order to use the words, etc. like political weapons.
We are using jingoism.
Exceptionalism can be evidenced by a multitude o
actions, both positive and negative.
While Americans, by and large, are poorly informed about other cultures, for example, that does not mean they are insensitive brutes.
It’s worthwhile to consider the psychological scars of the troops returning from Iraq. One soldier recounts being haunted by the imagie of a 2 yr. old Iraqi girl shot in the leg during indiscrimate shooting by US soldiers following a roadside bomb explosion. IThis man could, in one moment, see all Iraqis as barbarians needing to be killed, and in the next moment, he could see the very human suffering of an Iraqi child and feel remorse.
This is an exceptional young man for being able to tell a complex story in simple words.
Use any definition of ‘exceptional’ you want, but please stop using a word like a political sling shot..
“Use any definition of ‘exceptional’ you want, but please stop using a word like a political sling shot.”
domajot – I assume the above statement is aimed at me and my comments. I am criticizing what I perceive to be an excessive American trait, namely our concept of exceptionalism. You may disagree that such a trait exists or if it does, that it is damaging. However, any criticism of America could be construed as a political slingshot. Is that what you are trying to convey?
In the example of the soldier you give, I can understand in the stress and fog of war how indiscriminate firing can occur. After all, these soldiers are human, and probably young and somewhat immature as well. However, the basic attitude toward Iraqis when these young men ship out to war is something under the control of the individual soldier and their superiors.
If these young men are indocrinated in the concept that American lives are more valuable than Iraqi lives, don’t you think that might contribute to more incidents of indiscriminate shooting? I understand how the soldiers and their buddies consider themselves family so I am not mindlessly or in a utopian sense saying that the soldier should worry about his buddy’s life exactly equal to an Iraqi on the street.
The American exceptionalism I am critical of is one of a general American attitude towards others. One which obviously said, we have a right to invade any country in the world if we feel like it. Iraq is an example, but so was Grenada and Panama. I am also concerned on how the general exceptionalism of America, if any, is usurped by individual Americans. ie if America is Great, so must I be.
Americans rarely seem to be grateful for their luck of being born in this country. After all they had a 95% chance of being born elsewhere (300m vs 6b). If I had been born in the Congo, not only would I have been long dead by now, I probably would have come and gone without the opportunity of making a difference in the world. Believe me, almost every day I give thanks to G-d that I was born in America, even though I am critical.
jledell-
No, I was not talking specifically to you.
My comment about exceptionalism was directed at the genral trend to hijack words to mean only one specific thing and that one thing is used to denigrate someone else’s views. You are hardly the only one doing it. I’m probably guilty as well from time to time, although I try not to fall into the trap.
Concerning your overall criticisms, even though I agree with quite a number of them. I totally disagree with the manner they are presented. In your scenarios, it seems the US is the only actor on the scene, causing everything that happens. You appear to be treating everyone else as if they were passive bystanders, with no choice about their own actions, and, therefore, no responsibility.
That’s not the case. Even a victim has a choice in how to react to his victimhood. There is always a loop of reactons, and it’s pretty darn hard, and often pointless, to tell where it all begins.
In Iraq, the insurgents chose to become insurgents, and they are the other adults on the scene responsible for their choice. While we can understand why they were drawn to that choice, the choice and the responsibility are theirs. The US is reponsible for invading Iraq, but the Iraqis are responsible for how they chose to respond.
Now, we can disuss the realtive propotions of responsibility in any confilct,,and we should, but there needs to be a recongnition, that the US is not a puppet master, while everyone else is a lifeless puppet, acting without will.
domajat – yes, there are actions and reactions and sometimes it may be difficult to discern who started what. But the war in Iraq, in my mind, it’s pretty clear that the US was the instigator. Yes, the Iraqis had a choice – they could fight the occupation or surrender. Against the US military machine there wasn’t much in the way of middle ground.
I did not mean to suggest that other parties in this conflict were passive and to some degree not repsonsible for their actions. However, when the power relationships are so unequal, it’s hard to not condemn the aggressor and feel empathy for the victim. Examples of unequal power relationships are: adult vs child, a women vs a rapist with a gun, a person walking down the street vs a mugger with a gun, a family in their own home vs an armed robber, a tank vs a rifle, a B-52 vs anything below etc etc.
I consider the US vs Iraq the same as a tank vs a rifle and what is worse, our tank did not belong in the Iraqi home.
domjat I was only applying the discussion to individual 19 year old soldiers. Now the CPA, Mr Kate O’Biern and the Ledeen spawn are worthy of all negative criticism for American exceptionalism. The blame is not at the individual level(19 year old soldiers), but at leaders and pundits who use jingoism for political gain. History repeats the “Ugly American”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ugly_American
jledell-
No one regrets more than I do the invasion of Iraq.
Yes, the US instigated that. That was our deceision and our responsibility.
The US did not introduce the first experience of violence into Iraq, however. We are not responsible for every bad thing that ever happened to an Iraqi. A good part of the sectarian violence was instigated so long ago, no one can name the date or place anymore. Chains and loops, loops and chains.
The years move on, and the situation becomes ever more complex. There has to come a time to move beyond acknowledging our mistakes and obsessing over our shortcomings. Iraq today is what is is, full of bad actors and full of suffering.
I hope we learn some lessones, but groveling in ashes and sackcloth until the end of times is not going to help a single Iraqi or a single American.
While we’re groveling, we might just remember the Marshall Plan and Tsunami relief, things like that.
A little perspective and context would go a long way in grasping the nature of American exceptionalism – in all its variouss phases and facets If you want to put the American soul under the microscople, put all of it there, not just the selected, malformed parts.
Besides, America is just a country, it’s not an omnipotent God.
Rudi-
The Ugly American should be requited reading for anyone and everyone representing the US abroad, even tourists.
One facet of a sharater does not the whole charater make, however, not even if it’s a major aspect.
Like I’ve been trying to say to jledell, to be understood, any aspect has to be placed in the context of the whole.