With all the problems that have been largely created or exasperated in Iraq by the incompetence of the Bush Administration, it's easy to believe our troops are passive victims of the logic of empire. They aren't. Some of them are taking smart steps to move the military towards adopting strategies for what, for lack of a better word, we call nation-building.
Evan Thomas, Rod Nordland and Christian Caryl have written an interesting article on the steps some are taking to win this very different kind of war. ". . . the military establishment, especially the Army brass and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, have been reluctant to take on the messy jobs of nation-building and peacekeeping that go with stamping out guerrilla movements. In truth, defeating insurgencies is very hard. The preferred method down through the ages has been extermination - genocide and the elimination of whole villages and tribes. Such brutal tactics are not an option for a democratic superpower being closely watched by TV cameras."
Hopefully the administration can wake up to the difficulties of winning against an insurgancy. If they cannot, than maybe the soldiers and their leaders will figure out ways to lessen the body count and increase the potential for success.
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