>I agree with you that it would be highly unrealistic to think that the US
>hasn't got some plans for imposing a nasty law and order regime in Iraq.
>They do this at home, so why expect any better overseas?
E.g., Notice the joint authorship between military and police and notice that the first page contains an infamous photo image from Seattle: "Anticipating the Nature of the Next Conflict" by Col. G.I. Wilson USMCR, Maj. Frank Bunkers USMCR, Sgt John P. Sullivan, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
<http://www.d-n-i.net/fcs/doc/anticipating_4gw.doc>
So, yes, I mentioned this quite a long time ago--post N30. Urban warfare tactics and planning (officiall called Military Operations in Urban Terrain [MOUT]) is big in military research. It's considered the future of warfare and a peripheral part of the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). But, until recently, its best customer has been local police departments and the penal system, particularly for equipment and tactics that fall under the rubric, "non-lethal weapons": rubber bullets, gas, psychological warfare, immobilizing foam, acoustic/optical/electromagnetic weapons, yadda. It remains on the periphery, in terms of weaponry. What's of most interest, ATM, is people control in MOUT (urban warfare): how to kill/destroy who/what you want, without killing/destroying those people and things you haven't targeted.
What's going on now is what's called Three Block Warfare: "we can expect to be providing humanitarian assistance in one part of the city, conducting peacekeeping operations in another and be fighting a lethal mid-intensity battle in yet a third part of the city" (Charles C. Krulak, former General, USMC--in a 1997 speech to the National Press Club).
Iraq is the test bed--not necessarily for non-lethal weapons that immobilize people, but for psychological operations. Look, they're already distributing a newspaper and are running Usuk TeeVee ferchrisake! It's not clear on what basis one can say they hadn't considered various plans for the "day after" --how they planned to rule--given that they immediately started broadcasting and, within three days, they had put out a newspaper.
Neither tasks are terribly hard to accomplish, but what, did they smack themselves in the head the day the Information Minister failed to show up for work and say, "Oh My God! We need a newspaper, radio, and telly! And don't forget the Most Wanted Playing Cards for the troops!"
They, of course, want to spread the costs around for the people control part of the operation. Going it alone for the initial phases of the Three Block War worked out well. Now that Russia, France, and Germany have been shown their place in the world-- now that they've been told "no"--they'll beg for any bone thrown their way, even if only because they were told "no".
Even better, they are spreading the booty to private firms and NGOs, so everyone shares in the spoils of Three Block Warfare. Why be ashamed of the military-industrial-social sector perplex? As a u.s. technical writer who'd been out of work for nearly a year beforehand said on another list in the daze post 9.11, "Well, this will mean jobs for us. They'll need documentation, instruction manuals, and procedures."
kelley