from
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=452375
US soldiers driving bulldozers, with jazz blaring from loudspeakers, have uprooted ancient groves of date palms as well as orange and lemon trees in central Iraq as part of a new policy of collective punishment of farmers who do not give information about guerrillas attacking US troops.
...snip...
What the Israelis had done by way of collective punishment of Palestinians was now happening in Iraq, Sheikh Hussein added.
*****
I remember reading an article, in the Independent as I recall, about Israeli personnel conducting counter-insurgency training for US officers and enlisted.
Apparently the belief is that the IDF has done such an effective job of smashing Palestinian resistance that valuable insights into state-of-the-art techniques for breaking a people's will can be obtained by sitting at their booted feet.
Clearly, the use of such methods will create even greater resistance than now exists, pushing people who might have been patient to wait things out into the arms of those who're committed to driving the 'coalition' from the field.
This all but guarantees a grim future for Iraqis and 'coalition' personnel in the near future and perhaps beyond.
When you factor in the unpopular decision to add Turkish troops to the mix, a move loudly criticized by the Iraqi Governing Council and ordinary Iraqis, including Kurds who've been rather forgiving and supportive of the Americans, you have the makings of a disaster of astounding scope.
As I've said before, as hegemons and imperialists go, this lot are the worst.
Perhaps this is because they are the inheritors of tremendous power, rather than the architects. They have the mentality of corporate CEOs and line managers - small, blinkered by class arrogance and narrow education. Crippled by anti-curiosity and a moral view that sees people as means to ends.
DRM
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