Trenches In Baghdad: Return To Medieval Strategies?
It is going to appear like a real medieval war in Iraq with trenches being dug around the capital city of Baghdad, a city with a circumference of 60 miles!!!
This is what the ancient kings and war lords used to do (but in a much limited way)…to secure the main city by building forts, moats and trenches and let the rest of the country go to the dogs.
Shows that those who control Iraq/Baghdad may now be going bonkers. Or are they feeling that they have lost control? And now resorting to the last desperate measures?
An interesting story to read in The New York Times. “The Iraqi government plans to seal off Baghdad within weeks by ringing it with a series of trenches and setting up dozens of traffic checkpoints to control movement in and out of the violent city of seven million people, an Interior Ministry spokesman said Friday.
“American officials said the military had approved of the plan, which has been in the works for weeks. General Khalaf said he did not know how much the construction would cost or how many laborers would be employed.
“American commanders have made securing Baghdad their top priority. They have shifted troops to Baghdad to try to contain the sectarian conflict raging in the capital, which threatens to plunge Iraq into all-out civil war. A security plan promoted in June by American officials and Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki involved setting up traffic checkpoints throughout Baghdad, but failed to quell the Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence, which reached a peak in July.
“Last month, the Americans and the Iraqi government began a new tactic, flooding troubled neighborhoods with thousands of troops and doing searches block by block, then leaving battalions behind to try and win the confidence of residents.
“President Bush said at a news conference on Friday that the Iraqis were ‘building a berm around the city to make it harder for people to come in with explosive devices, for example.’ Military officials said the Iraqis had considered such a project earlier, but decided to go with trenches instead.
“The second-ranking American commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, stressed in an interview the importance of securing Baghdad. ‘I’ll be perfectly clear with you, our main effort right now is Baghdad,’ he said. ‘It’s our focus.’
“It is unclear whether Baghdad can really be sealed off, given the city’s circumference of about 60 miles. With so much terrain, guerrillas might find areas that are unconstrained by the trenches and checkpoints. On the main roads, traffic could be snarled for miles, especially in the final days of Ramadan, when people travel to celebrate with their families.”
It is likely that from now on we could be hearing of more such quixotic strategies to cling on to Iraq, or at least Baghdad. But for how long???
3 Responses to “Trenches In Baghdad: Return To Medieval Strategies?”
Does this strike anyone as sounding suspiciously similiar to the “fortified hamlet” strategy of Vietnam?
Not that Iraq is anything like Vietnam…no, its completely different – just ask Rumsfeld whose grasp of history is strange to say the least.
This also sounds a little like Petersburg in the final months of the US civil war. Which means war-supporters now have to take the roll of the defenders of slavery just as war critics were according to this administration last week. Makes my head spin.
Anyhow, onward to victory! Or something….
Possibly, Eural. If anything resembling reason has taken over it could be that the idea is to establish in effect a “beachhead” of peace and organization from which to operate. Of course it won’t work unless they can neuter Al Sadr and eliminate the Shiite death squads in the security services.
They dig a ditch, the insurgents take a clue form our own border and dig a tunnel underneath. Any defensive position studied long enough will show a weakness, was the conclusion by the British after WW2 when they studied the Maginot Line, and the insurgents have all the time in the world.